Plateau Court Issues Arrest Warrant Against CBN Controller For Disobeying Court Order

A Plateau State Hight Court sitting in Jos, the state capital, Wednesday, issued a warrant of arrest against the state’s Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Jonah Akama, over disobedience to court order.

The arrest warrant shown to journalists in Jos on Friday and signed by Honourable Justice N.D. Shaseet, read that any police officer who comes across Akama should arrest him.

It said the arrest warrant followed Akama’s failure to appear before the court over a case involving John Eche Okpe, Esq.

The case, with the number PLD/J397/m/2023, is a suit instituted by John Eche Okpe Esq., a Legal Practitioner based in Jos, who obtained a judgement against the Federal Government of Nigeria and some of its agencies and sought to enforce the judgement via garnishee proceedings against the CBN.

The garnishee order issued to the tune of N10million was made absolute by His Lordship, Honourable Justice N.D. Shaseet of the Plateau State High Court of Justice on the November 1, 2023.

But, since the making of the order absolute, the Central Bank of Nigeria had refused to comply with the order.

The development necessitated the Judgement Creditor to commence contempt proceedings against the Plateau State Branch Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

After several attempts necessitating about three adjournments to enable the alleged contemnor to attend his trial, the alleged contemnor had continued to evade court sittings.

On the December 14, 2023, the Honourable Court was left with no option but to issue a warrant of arrest to compel the attendance of the alleged contemnor (Makama) to show cause why he should not be committed to prison.

The application for the issuance of a warrant of arrest was made by the counsel to the Judgement Creditor, Daniel Agabi Esq., who led a team of lawyers for the Judgement Creditor.

Meanwhile, the case has been adjourned to December 22, 2023.

The legal officer for CBN, Jos branch, Bashir Garkami, while reacting to the arrest warrant, said they will appeal the order.