Justice Stephen Daylop Pam of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, has ordered the freezing of the accounts of the Ebonyi State Government and its monthly allocations.

The suit is marked No. FHC/PH/CS/35/2022.

The monies the court ordered frozen, include $29,854,856.9, N30,100,000,000, and another N15 million.

A certified true copy of the Order Nissi in possession of Africachinapresscenter.com signed by the Registrar, O.P. Clovis Okereke on July 21, 2022, validates the authenticity of the process.

The plaintiffs in the matter also indicated as judgment creditors, Andrew Bishopton Ltd and Mauritz Walton Nigeria Ltd had filed the Garnishee process before the court against the Ebonyi State Government as the judgment debtor, the Attorney General, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as the first Garnishee party and the United Bank as the second Garnishee.

The process is actually the enforcement of an existing judgment of a court in favour of the two companies, the reason the parties suing are indicated as judgment creditors, and the Ebonyi government as a judgment debtor.

The garnishee parties are the custodians of the monies ordered frozen or attached and include $29,854,856.9 domiciled with the CBN, another N30,100,000,000 and yet another N15 million from also the UBA through which the government receives its monthly allocations.

The application for the order was filed as ex parte process.

The judge of the court granted the judgment creditors their requests for the attachment or freezing of the listed accounts with the two banks and also ordered the banks to file required documents as proof that the banks have sufficient fund to offset the debts against Ebonyi State.

The court granted the five orders sought by the two companies freezing the monies in the Ebonyi account and transferring them to the account of the two companies domiciled with the Wema Bank, account number 0122765584 from that of the state government UBA account number 1001158077 as a means of liquidating an existing judgment sum owed the applicants by the state.

The court also granted the CBN and UBA 14 days window to file any papers before it, if there is any need, on why the order would not be executed immediately since there were not in court during the hearing of the application filed by the two companies.

However, all our efforts and waiting on the Attorney General of the State, Mr. Cletus Ofoke to respond to the report didn’t yield any dividend.

After a call to him, that was not picked up on Friday, September 2, we sent him a message on Whatsapp to inquire about the development. The message was read the following day, but we got no reply.

The message introduced the sender and mentioned the reason, saying “we have a court order of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt freezing the account of Ebonyi State and monthly allocation at the CBN and UBA. The CTC of the Garnishee process in an Order Nissi is dated July 21. We just want to get your side of the story, knowing that an injunction ex parte ordinarily lasts 14 days if the court is persuaded otherwise. Was it vacated or execution valid? We need your comment to balance our report, sir”. (Africachinapresscenter.com)