Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has reserved its verdict on an appeal that was brought before it by Governor Seyi Makinde and some principal officers of Oyo State over their failure to pay an outstanding judgement debt of N3.4billion.
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, had ordered that the money should be paid to Local Government Chairmen and Councillors who were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, but were sacked on May 29, 2019, by Makinde, after he assumed office as the governor of Oyo state.
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The court ordered Governor Makinde, the Attorney General of Oyo state, the Accountant General and four others, to pay a total sum of N4,874,889,425.60 to the ex-council chiefs over the illegal termination of their tenure.
The order was further affirmed on May 7, 2021, by the Supreme Court, which declared that the ex-council chiefs, who sued through 11 representatives led by Bashorun Majeed Ajuwon, was unlawful.
The apex court directed the Oyo state government to compute and pay them their entitled salaries and allowances within three months of the judgment.
However, in partial compliance with the judgement, the Oyo state government paid only N1.5bn, an action that promoted the sacked Chairmen and Councillors to initiate a garnishee proceeding against Governor Makinde and the others before the FCT High Court.
On the strength of their application, Justice A.O. Ebong, on April 27, issued a garnishee order absolute, directing Governor Makinde and other defendants in the matter to pay the balance of the judgment debt on an instalment basis, beginning with N1,374,889,425.60 to be paid immediately.
Justice Ebong ordered them to subsequently pay the remaining N2bn at N500million quarterly, with the first instalment payable on July 31, 2023, a decision that Makinde and the other defendants approached the appellate court to challenge.
At the commencement of proceedings in the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/595/2023, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, queried the competence of an appeal.
The panel, which had Justices Mohammed Mustapha and Danlami Senchi as members, asked counsel to the appellants, Mr Ayodele Akintunde, SAN, if he thought it was proper for the Court of Appeal to sit and review a case that had been decided by the Supreme Court.
The court also asked Akintunde, SAN, about the time limit given by the Supreme Court, within which the Oyo State governor and the other appellants were to fully pay the judgment debt.
More so, the appellate court questioned the competence of a motion by the appellants seeking to be allowed to pay the debt by instalment, noting that the appeal itself was against a similar instalment payment arrangement ordered by the High Court of the FCT.
Responding, Akintunde, SAN, said the apex court actually ordered the Oyo state government to pay the debt, within three months.
He, however, argued that the appeal did not directly touch on the judgment by the apex court, insisting that the judgement was no longer that of the Supreme Court, but that of the High Court of Oyo state, which was later registered in the High Court of the FCT.
Akintunde added that the parties had since compromised the judgement by taking certain steps.
On his part, counsel to the ex-council chiefs, Musibau Adetunbi, SAN, regretted that 26 of his clients have since died from poverty and lack of funds to attend to their health, owing to the failure of the Oyo state government to comply with the various orders that courts made in their favour.
Adetunbi, SAN, faulted the appellants’ lawyer’s contention that his clients could not enforce the judgment through the garnishee proceeding because the judgment sum was not reflected.
He drew the court’s attention to a letter written on December 13, 2021, by the Attorney General of Oyo State, where the state put the salaries and allowances due to the ex-council chiefs at N4,874,889,425.60 and pledged to pay everything within six months.
Adetunbi equally drew the attention of the court to a letter dated May 8, 2023, written by one of Oyo State’s bankers and read a portion where the bank said the N1,374,889,425.60 belonging to the state, which was attached by the garnishee order, would have been paid if not for the pending appeal.
He faulted the appellants’ contention that it was mandatory for the judgment creditors to first obtain the consent of the state’s AG where funds belonging to a state or its agencies are concerned.
The respondent’s lawyer argued that by the conduct of the appellants, particularly the December 13, 2021 letter, suggested that the AG consented to the liquidation of the debt.
He maintained that the failure of governor Makinde and the others to pay the money was deliberate.
Consequently, he urged the court to dismiss the appeal.
After entertaining arguments from both lawyers, the appellate court reserved its judgement till a date to be communicated to the parties.
