The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the Federal Capital Territory High Court’s April 27 decision requiring Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde to pay the remaining amount of 3.4 billion naira from a 4.9 billion naira debt stemming from a Supreme Court judgement on May 7, 2021.
The 4.9 billion naira debt arose from a Supreme Court judgement against Makinde, the state’s Attorney General, Accountant General, and four others in favour of Chairmen and Councillors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but sacked by the governor when he took office on May 29, 2019.
In a unanimous judgment, a three-member panel of the Court led by Justice Danlami Senchi, deplored Makinde’s conduct which it described as disrespectful of the nation’s judicial system.
The appellate court, which resolved the two issues, identified for determination against the appellants, dismissed the appeal filed by Makinde and six others for lacking in merit.
The court also awarded 50 million Naira as cost against Makinde and the other appellants to be paid to the ex-council chiefs led by Bashorun Mojeed Bosun Ajuwon.
In the lead judgment, Justice Danlami Senchi, held that, as against the contention by the appellants, there was no dispute as to the amount that constituted the judgment debt.
Justice Senchi also faulted the appellants’ contention that the ex-council chiefs failed to first obtain the consent of the Oyo State Attorney General before initiating a garnishee proceeding to seize the state’s funds to settle the judgment debt.
The judge said asking the ex-council chiefs to first seek and obtain the consent of the Oyo AG, who is one of the judgment debtors, amounts to making him to be a judge in his own case, which requirement is unfair to the judgment creditors.
The ex-council chiefs were in order to have initiated the garnishee proceeding, because there was a judgment debt to be paid by the appellants by virtue of the judgment of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had, in its May 7, 2021 judgment, declared the ex-council chiefs, who sued through 11 representatives, led by Bashorun Majeed Ajuwon, as unlawful and ordered the Oyo State Government to compute and pay them their entitled salaries and allowances within three months of the judgment.
Rather than comply with the judgment, the Oyo State Government paid only N1.5b, prompting the judgment creditors (the ex-council chiefs) to initiate a garnishee proceeding against Makinde and others before the High Court of the FCT.
In the April 27 ruling, Justice A. O. Ebong of the High Court of the FCT issued a garnishee order absolute, directing Makinde and others to pay the balance of the judgment debt on instalment basis, beginning with N1,374,889,425.60 to be paid immediately.
Justice Ebong ordered them to subsequently pay the remaining N2b at N500m quarterly, with the first instalment payable on July 31, 2023, a decision Makinde and others challenged at the Court of Appeal.
It is the April 27 ruling by Justice Ebong that the Court of Appeal affirmed in the judgment delivered on Friday.