The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to appear before it on 19 July over a 53 million dollar-judgement debt arising from the Pars Club refund.
Inyang Ekwo, who gave the order during the hearing of a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1193/2017, insisted that the court would not hear Mr Emefiele’s motion for stay until he appeared in court.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that Mr Ekwo had, on 20 October 2022, ordered the CBN governor to appear in court on 18 January over his alleged refusal to obey the order of the court for the payment of the judgement debt in favour of a lawyer, Joe Agi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.
However, the 18 January proceedings could not go on as scheduled. This prompted the court to adjourn the case until 20 March subsequently.
Agi had sued Linas International Ltd, Minister of Finance and CBN, to court as judgment debtors, following an application for garnishee made by him as judgment creditor in the case.
The suit is one in a flurry of legal actions associated with the federal government’s refund to states and local governments the amounts of funds said to have been over-deducted from their accounts to offset Paris Club and London between 1995 and 2002.
Linas International Ltd and its promoter, Ned Nwoko, had initiated the first significant suit, which culminated in a court judgement awarding them huge amounts of money for their roles in helping states and local government areas to discover the excessive deductions from their accounts.
Since then, countless entities, lawyers, and other professionals have surfaced, claiming to have provided one form of consultancy services or the other to recover the money for the states and local governments.
Agi, through his suit, seeks enforcement of a judgement that he obtained against Linas International Ltd for his role in helping the firm to secure the recovery of the funds.
Upon resumed hearing on Tuesday, Agi’s counsel, Ayodele Arotiowa, said Emefiele had yet to comply with the court’s order compelling him to appear in court.
Audu Anuga, SAN, who appeared for Emefiele and CBN, however, pointed out that the court did not sit on the previous date scheduled for a hearing.
Arotiowa said though they had been served with the processes, they had also responded.
Anuga told the court that they had a pending application to set aside those “order nisi,” the preliminary order usually issued by the court to set the stage for a final one in monetary judgement enforcement proceedings.
Ekwo then said that it was because of his order that Mr Emefiele should appear in court that prompted them to go on appeal “so that he does not appear in this court.”
“That is exactly what you have done. So, we, the trial court, cannot do our job?
“I am not going to hear you on any application until Godwin Emefiele appears in court.
“Therefore, I am going to give a date for you to report to the court on compliance with the order of the court.
“Upon being aware that the motion for stay of execution is a live matter in this court, this court shall not hear that application unless and until Mr Godwin Emefiele, who has been ordered to appear in court, appears in court,” the judge declared.
He adjourned the matter until the 19 July report.
Background
NAN reports that the dispute stemmed from an alleged $70 million judgment against Linas International Ltd for the lawyer’s (Joe Agi) assistance with the Paris Club refund.
Emefiele was said to have only released $17 million, leaving an unpaid balance of $53 million.
The court had, on 23 January 2020, ruled that Emefiele must appear “to be examined on oath, since the date of the said garnishee order absolute, to pay the balance of 53 million dollars now due and payable under the said garnishee order absolute and also show cause why you should not be committed to prison for default in payment of the said sum”.
In October 2022, Agi, through his counsel Isaac Ekpa and Chinonso Obasi, filed another application against Linas International, the Minister of Finance and the CBN.
He sought an order directing the Inspector-General of Police to arrest Mr Emefiele and bring him to court alongside his lawyers, Damian Dodo, Audu Anuga, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria, and Ginika Ezeoke, Jessica Iyoke, Abdullahi Afolayan, and Olayemi Afolayan.
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