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His Lordship, Hon. Justice O. O. Arowosegbe of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Owerri division on Friday 23rd February 2018 in a ruling made order Absolute Against the Accounts of Imo State Government to the tune of N290, 068, 717.57 in the case of Chief Ikedi Ohakim AND Imo State Government (Defendants/Judgment Debtors) & 3 ORS AND ACCESS BANK PLC & 7 ORS (Garnishees)
On 5th December 2017, this suit came up for garnishees to show cause why the Decree Nisi should not be made absolute against the garnishees. This ruling is in respect of the oral application made by counsel to the judgment creditors: L.A. Njemanze, that order absolute be granted against the 3rd garnishee in view of the satisfactory admissions made in the affidavit to show cause before the Court. The 3rd garnishee: First Bank PLC, filed on the 5th December 2017 an Affidavit titled “Affidavit to Show Cause of the 3rd Garnishee”.
Counsel to the 3rd garnishee/applicant: J.I. Ogamba, did not oppose this application and instead, actually asked that order absolute be made against the 3rd garnishee/applicant, so that it could be discharged. However, the learned Asst. Director of Civil Litigation, Ministry of Justice, Imo State: I.I. Amadi (Mrs.) Assistant Director, Civil Litigation, Ministry of Justice, Imo State, urged the Court not to make the order absolute against the 3rd garnishee, in view of the fact that she intended to file application for leave to appeal and application for stay of execution against the judgment. She also argued that if the order absolute is made, it might be well above the judgment sum since the judgment sum was not contained in the judgment.
After reviewing the argument of the parties, the Court Presided by Hon. Justice O. O. Arowosegbe, expressed as follows:
The matter came up on the 5th of December 2017; meaning that the judgment debtors had the grace of 26 days, yet they could not prepare and file whatever application that was meant to arrest the granting of the order absolute before the said 5th December 2017. What is more, by paragraphs 3 & 7 of the affidavit in support of the Motion Ex-parte on which the order nisi was made, I understand that the judgment in issue was delivered on 24/5/2016 and that the initial leave to appeal filed against the judgment on 7/6/2016 was struck out by the Court of Appeal on 23/3/2017 for want of diligent prosecution: that is above 8 months for which the judgment creditor had the opportunity to re-file application for leave to appeal but failed. I also understand from the same affidavit that the judgment debt garnished, which the learned Asst. Director of Civil Litigation is contesting as likely above what it is supposed to be was actually served via a demand notice of same and the calculations to the Hon. Attorney-General of Imo State on 01/06/2016 and on 7/3/17 respectively and that the judgment debtors did not respond to these – see paragraph 5 of the said affidavit. To my mind, it is clear that the present oral application without any notice of appeal or leave to appeal filed, is just a pure gimmick to waste the time of the Court and the time of the other parties to the application for order absolute, and not to do anything serious.
In view of my reasoning above, I make the decree nisi against the 3rd garnishee absolute. The N76, 378,613.59 (Seventy-six million, three hundred and seventy-eight thousand, two hundred and thirteen Naira, fifty-nine Kobo) in the 3rd garnishee’s (First Bank PLC) custody and owed to the judgment debtors must be paid to the Chief Registrar of this Court within 21 days from today. [I NEED TO BE ADDRESSED ON THE ISSUE OF DISCREPANCY IN THE FIGURE AND WORDS OF THE AMOUNT STATED BY THE 3RD GARNISHEE. I ALSO NEED TO BE ADDRESSED ON THE ISSUE OF THE EXACT JUDGMENT SUM]
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