Paris Club refund: Court okays contempt charge against five senior lawyers

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered that a contempt charge motion against five senior advocates of Nigeria (SANs) involved in the $418 million judgement debt suit be served on them through courier services.

Inyang Ekwo, the judge, issued the order for substituted service on Wednesday, following an ex-parte motion by Emeka Okoro, counsel for the applicants, who are 15th and 16th respondents in the suit.

According to NAN, Panic Alert Security Systems Limited and George Uboh, two out of the consultants engaged in the $418 million debt in relation to the Paris club refund, are 15th and 16th respondents, respectively.

Okoro had complained, shortly after the matter was called, that the five senior lawyers allegedly evaded being served with the charge despite all efforts made by the bailiff as required by law.

The affected SANs are Sunday Ameh, Jibrin Okutepa, Garba Tetengi, Ahmed Raji, and Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro.

The applicants had, through their lawyer in the contempt charge, urged the court to commit the five SANs to prison custody for alleged contempt of court in the $418 million judgment debt suit.

They also prayed the court to ensure that the five SANs are reported to the legal practitioners’ privileges committee (LPPC) of the body of benchers.

They described the attitude of the senior lawyers against the March 25 judgment delivered by Ekwo as “infamous conduct unbecoming of a legal practitioner.”

TheCable had reported that Ekwo had, on March 25, dismissed the suit filed by the 36 states’ attorney-generals (AGs) against the federal government for lacking in merit.

The judge held that the states’ AGs, who were plaintiffs in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1313/2021, lacked the legal right to institute the matter without their governors’ consent.

But in a letter dated April 4, the states, through the AGs, asked the federal government to refrain from deducting from funds accruing to them for the payment of the judgment debt.

Meanwhile, in the contempt charge, the senior advocates were alleged to have placed “caveat emptor” on the judgment of the federal high court.

The court granted permission to President Muhammadu Buhari to deduct the $418 million from the financial allocations of the 36 state governments as payments for the Paris Club refund.

The five SANs were alleged to have placed the notice, warning all the banks in Nigeria and abroad against dealing with the respondents who the March 25 judgment was given in their favour with respect to promissory notes.

The notes were issued by the federal government and intended to be discounted and given value from funds due to the states of the federation from the federation account in respect of judgment debts in connection with Paris Club refund contracts pending the hearing and determination of the appeal.

The implication of the “caveat emptor,” according to the two applicants, was to impede the execution of the $418 million judgment debt against the 36 states as their clients.

The aggrieved applicants asked the court for an order to serve the contempt charge on the lawyers through a nominated courier company and by pasting the same in their respective offices.

Ekwo, in a brief ruling on the ex-parte application, ordered that the motion for contempt charge be served on the senior lawyers within seven days and fixed May 26 for the hearing of the motion.

Earlier, one of the senior lawyers, Sunday Ameh, who was in court, made frantic efforts to stop the hearing of the ex-parte application on grounds that an appeal against the judgment debt itself had been entered at the court of appeal and that the federal high court no longer has jurisdiction in respect of it.

Ameh, who informed that he had planned to withdraw the motion on notice seeking an order of interim injunction against the federal government presently before Ekwo, said an affidavit of facts in respect of the appeal had already been filed before the court.

He sought to withdraw the motion, but Ekwo, who wondered why the application was filed in the first instance, proceeded with the ex-parte application and granted the requests of the two applicants.