A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has frozen the accounts belonging to Benue and Plateau states in Skye Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and First City Monument Bank Plc over their alleged refusal to pay workers their entitlements.
Justice Ademola Adeniyi of the High Court gave this directive on Monday while ruling on two ex-parte applications filed by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), which sought to attach the states’ accounts in the banks over their alleged refusal to pay about N1.6billion to comply with the January 13, 2014, judgement delivered by the judge.
“An order nisi is hereby made attaching the money belonging to the 15th and 16th judgment debtors/respondents domiciled with Skye Bank Plc, Makurdi Branch – account number 170008758, to satisfy the judgement awarded in favour of the judgement creditor/applicant,” the judge said.
He also made a similar order in relation to Plateau State’s accounts in the other banks. The judge ordered the garnishee “to show cause why the order nisi should not be made absolute by the court.”
It said that the amount due to Benue State judiciary as at March 2015 is N957,630,349.57 and the amount due to the Plateau State judiciary for the same period is N673,019,948.19.
The governors and the attorney-general of both states were listed as the 15th and 16th; 63rd and 64th defendants in the motions.
JUSUN said Benue and Plateau, who were parties in the main suit, had “bluntly refused to obey the judgement of the court.”
It said the judiciary of both states owed their workers, who are members of the union, “arrears of salary and other funds due to them up to March 2015.”
They stated, in the supporting affidavits, that all efforts made to both states’ governments “to comply with the judgement of this honourable court fell on deaf ears.”
The case has been adjourned to June 1, three days after the May 29 date for the handover to the incoming administrations in both states.
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