A Federal High Court in Lagos presided over by Justice Mohammed Yunusa, has ordered the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to appear before him on November 19 to explain why he should not be jailed for allegedly treating the court with contempt. The order was made today.
The judge had earlier on October 2, 2015 ordered the service of Form 48, Notice of Consequence of Disobedience to Order of Court, on Emefiele and two other directors of the CBN, Mr. A.O. Ogundana and Mr. Dipo Fatokun.
The order to serve Emefiele, Ogundana and Fatokun with Form 48 followed an allegation by Ecobank Nigeria Limited that Emefiele and others had been flouting a court order made on July 1, 2015 despite being duly served since July 16, 2015.
Ecobank had alleged that Emefiele, Ogundana and Fatokun were frustrating its move to recover a huge debt allegedly owed it by an oil marketing firm, First Deepwater Discovery Limited.
The stated the order, which was allegedly disobeyed, mandated the CBN to redeem a Sovereign Debt Note issued in favour of Ecobank by the Debt Management Office in respect of fuel subsidy claims accruable to First Deepwater, being kept in the custody of the CBN.
But the bank claimed that it had been hamstrung by the alleged refusal of Emefiele and others to obey the order.
At today's proceedings, counsel for CBN, Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), however, stated the Form 48 had not been served on Emefiele, Ogundana and Fatokun, in any manner ordered by the judge.
Raji urged the court not to entertain the contempt proceedings yet because there was still contention on the propriety of service.
He pleaded the court to rather hear his application seeking to vacate the stated order which Ecobank claimed that CBN had refused to obey.
“Service is very important, even in civil matter, not to talk of a quasi-criminal matter.
“Service is cardinal and fundamental that when you have a motion complaining about service, that is a threshold that must be thrashed before further proceedings,” Raji stated.
However, counsel for the bank, Kunle Ogunba (SAN), stated what was important was that Emefiele and others knew about the contempt case, irrespective of how they knew.
He noted that despite being aware of the contempt case, Emefiele and others did not appear in court. He urged the judge to enforce his order in order to preserve the integrity of the court.
“The parties who were cited have not appeared before this court and they cannot do so by proxy.
“The business of the court is a serious business, otherwise, it would come to a situation where the court would make an order and it would not be obeyed.
“I submit that the business of the court today is solely to hear from the alleged contemnors why further steps should not be taken in these proceedings against them,” Ogunba stated.
In a bench ruling, Yunusa stated an order of court was bound to be obeyed whether rightly or wrongly made.
He stated as ministers in the temper of justice, lawyers had the duty to advise their clients to always obey court orders.
The judge therefore, adjourned till November 19, 2015 for Emefiele, Ogundana and Fatokun to appear in court.