Court Refuses To Grant Injunctive Order Against FG Over $418m Paris Club Refund

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, refused to grant an injunctive order against the Federal Government over the bid to deduct $418 million from the allocations of the 36 states government to fund their contractual obligations in the Paris club refund.

The trial Judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, declined to grant the application for injunctive order made by the 36 state governors to stop the Federal Government from proceeding with further deductions of their money from the federation account.

The governors, through their counsel, Sunday Ameh (SAN) had moved a motion on Monday praying the court to grant an Injunctive order against the federal government to prevent it from proceeding with the deduction of their $418 million.

Their grouse was that they were not parties to a legal action which resulted in a judgment that ordered the federal government to deduct the $418 million from the state government account to settle the debt obligations to various contractors who assisted the states in the Paris club refund project.

Defendants in the matter, comprising contractors and banks had objected to the request by the state governors for the injunctive order against the federal government on the ground that a federal high court had earlier issued an order that the Federal Government should deduct the money.

The defendants argued that based on the earlier judgement of the court, the former Chairman of the Nigerian governors’ forum, Governor Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara state issued a promissory note on behalf of the governors to the effect that the $418 million be deducted from their money from the federation account.

The defendants, through their lawyers also challenged the jurisdiction of the court in the instant case adding that since the earlier judgement was delivered by the same court, more than four years ago, the governors have not deemed it fit to file an appeal against the judgment.

They, therefore, prayed the court not to sit as an appeal court in a matter that had earlier been decided by the court .

In a ruling after taking submissions from counsel, justice Ekwo refused to grant the injunctive order sought by the plaintiffs and held that where the jurisdiction of a court is challenged, the proper thing to do is for the issue of jurisdiction to be resolved first before proceeding to do anything in a matter before it.

The court fixed December 21, 2021, to hear all applications challenging the courts’ jurisdiction, along with the substantive suit filed by the plaintiffs.