A High Court in Abuja has issued an order that could have significant financial implications for the Oyo State Government and its agencies.
The order, which was issued by Justice A.O. Ebong, directs four banks – namely First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Wema Bank, and Zenith Bank – to freeze and attach funds standing to the credit of the Oyo State Government, and its agencies.
According to reports from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the order was issued following a motion ex-parte for garnishee order filed by a group of former local government chairpersons and councilors.
This group, led by Bashorun Majeed, Bosun Ajuwon, and Idris Okusesi, had initiated the garnishee proceeding to recover the outstanding balance of N3,374,889,425.60 owed to them as judgment debt.
The debt arose from a Supreme Court judgment delivered on 7 May 2021. It found that Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State had acted unlawfully by sacking the former local government chairpersons and councilors before the end of their tenure.
The affected individuals were represented by Musibau Adetunbi, a lawyer who had argued their case before the Supreme Court.
In light of the court’s order, the affected banks have been directed to show cause why the order should not be made absolute. If they cannot do so, it is likely that the funds standing to the credit of the Oyo State Government and its agencies will be applied towards settling the outstanding judgment debt owed to the former local government chairpersons and councilors.
The ruling reads: “A garnishee order nisi is hereby granted to attach the judgment debtors’ accounts with garnishees Nos. 1 to 4 in the motion ex-parte, for the purpose of settling the judgment debt outstanding in the sum of N3,374,889,425.60 as awarded by the Supreme Court and conceded by the judgment debtors in Exhibit 11 attached to the applicant’s motion.
“The garnishees (1st to 4th) shall file affidavits and attend court on the next adjourned date to show cause why the order nisi should not be made absolute.
“A copy of this order nisi shall be served on the judgment debtors as required by law. This matter is hereby adjourned to 4/4/2023 for continuation.”
It was gathered that the judgment creditors have since effected service of copies of the order on the judgment debtors as ordered by the court.
Listed as judgment debtors with the Oyo State Governor is the state’s Attorney General, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, the Accountant General, the House of Assembly, it’s Speaker, and the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC).
The ex-chairpersons and councilors were elected in the election conducted by OYSIEC on 12 March 2018 for a three-year term.
Upon learning that Mr. Makinde, who took office on 29 May 2019 had planned to sack them, they sued before the High Court of Oyo State to challenge the constitutionality of Sections 11 and 12 of the Oyo State Local Government Law 2001, which empowered the governor and the House of Assembly to dissolve LG executives in the state.
In its judgment on 6 May 2019, the Oyo State High Court declared Sections 11 and 12 of the state’s Local Government Law 2001 as unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated Section 7(1) of the Constitution.
Despite the subsistence of the judgment, Makinde sacked the chairpersons and councilors on 29 May 2019 and subsequently appealed the judgment.
The Court of Appeal, in its judgment on 15 July 2020 set aside the judgment of the High Court, a decision the affected officials appealed at the Supreme Court.
In its judgment on 7 May 2021, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, allowed the appeal marked: SC/CV/556/2020 and set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal.
The court, which awarded a cost of N20 million against Makinde, ordered that the ex-chairpersons and councilors, who were unlawfully sacked by the governor, be paid their salaries and allowances from 29 May 2019 to 11 May 2021 when their tenure ought to have expired.
In the lead judgment by Justice Ejembi Eko, the Supreme Court came down hard on Makinde, who it found, acted arbitrarily and undemocratic.
Justice Eko said: “I will not conclude this appeal without commenting on the disturbing ugly face of impunity displayed by the Governor of Oyo State (1st respondent herein) on 29th May 2019, tantamounting to executive lawlessness, outrightly and vehemently condemned by this court in the case of the Military Governor of Lagos State v. Ojukwu.”
He noted that, even before appealing the High Court judgment, Makinde on 29 May 2019 “issued imperial directives dissolving all democratically elected local Government Councils in Oyo State in spite of the subsisting judgment of Oyo State High Court in the suit No. 1/347/2017.
“Series of applications were filed by the judgment creditors, the present appellants, to restrain, particularly the 1st respondent (the Governor), from embarking on the self-help designed to contemptuously frustrate the judgment of the High Court.
“He was not dissuaded. He proceeded in his imperial omnipotence to continue in his untrammeled, albeit invidious contemptuous, disregard for subsisting judgment of the High Court.
“It is unthinkable that a democratically elected government would embark on these unwholesome undemocratic tendencies. These tendencies no doubt endanger democracy and the rule of law.
“It is almost becoming a universal phenomenon that the democratically elected Governors have constituted themselves into a specie most dangerous to democracy in this country.
“They disdainfully disregard and disrupt democratically elected Local Government Councils and appoint their lackeys as caretaker committees to run affairs of Local Governments,” Justice Eko said.
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