Ex-Gov Nyame Drags Taraba Govt, CBN To Court Over Non-Payment Of Pension Arrears

Former Taraba State governor, Jolly Nyame, has dragged the Taraba State government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) before the National Industrial Court over non-payment of his pension benefit arrears.

The matter came up on Tuesday via a garnishee proceeding before Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae.

When the matter was called, counsel to Nyame, the judgment creditor, E.T Irhilure, informed the court that processes had been served on the CBN, the garnishee debtor to appear before the court to show cause why the proceeding should not be effected on the judgment debtor’s account to pay the judgment sum.

He further explained that however, CBN had filed a preliminary objection to that effect. The counsels in addition said that they had responded to the same, but were yet to serve CBN

Irhilure equally said that the judgment debtors had served on them while in the court on Tuesday its motion on notice, which was not different from what the garnishee debtor had filed. He, therefore, prayed for a short date in order to respond.

On their part, Emmanuel Anderifun and Caleb Ejoga, counsels to the judgment debtors and garnishee debtor respectively, did not object to the application.

The court, therefore, adjourned the matter till March 16 for a hearing of the application.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reported that the court on July 12, 2019, ordered the payment of the sum of N151.1 million being the unpaid pension arrears for Nyame and three others in a summary judgment.

The judgment, which was delivered by Justice Sanusi Kado, was for unpaid pension arrears from May 2013 to October 2015.

The other claimants in the suit were Uba Ahmadu, Abubakar Armayau and Bilkisu Danboyi.

The court in the said judgment ordered 10 equal instalments commencing from July 2019 on a monthly basis until the final liquidation of the total sum.

The judgment further stated that failure of the judgment debtors to abide by the decision of the court will attract a 10 per cent interest rate.

The order of the court however was not obeyed, hence the instituting of the garnishee proceeding by the judgment creditor.

NAN also reported that the claimants who were former employees of the defendant upon retirement were paid the sum of N45 million out of their total pension arrears of N196 million.

They, therefore, approached the court to seek redress after every effort to get the balance of their pension arrears failed.