A lawyer, Eric Ifere, has threatened to proceed with a pending contempt suit seeking the imprisonment of the chairperson of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Musa Aliyu, for alleged disobedience of a court order.
Mr Ifere, counsel for Nkrah Marine Limited and its CEO, gave the warning to continue in a letter addressed to Mr Aliyu, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Copies of the letter were made available to journalists in Abuja on Friday.
In the letter dated 17 January and received by the commission the same day, the lawyer accused the ICPC’s chairman of disobeying a court order by failing to remove the restrictions placed on his client’s bank accounts and pay the N5 million ordered by the court.
He warned in the letter that the application for committal for contempt of court proceedings would be moved to the next hearing date unless the ICPC chair obeyed the judgement.
“We are mindful that you have recently resumed office and may not be aware of the pending committal proceedings to prison against you as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ICPC, the first judgment debtor, for having refused to obey the orders of the court made against it.
“On 18 January 2022, the Federal High Court, Abuja, made an order directing you to remove the restrictions placed on the judgement creditors’ bank accounts numbers: 2657858013, 4573142058 and 4573142027 domiciled with First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and account number: 1000576777 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc and pays the judgment creditors N5,000,000 in damages.
“On 4 July 2022, the same Federal High Court delivered a ruling refusing the 1st judgment debtor’s request for a stay of execution of its judgment.
“Further, it directed you to remove the judgment creditors’ account restrictions immediately.
“Regrettably, you have neglected and refused to obey the honourable court’s judgement and orders to date.
“Consequently, the judgment creditors have commenced contempt proceedings against you.
“And the hearing date is fixed for 8 February 2024 at court number 12, Federal High Court, Abuja, while maintaining that restricting their bank accounts undermines the judgment of the court and violates their fundamental rights,” the letter read in part.
Mr Ifere urged Mr Aliyu to review the decision by lifting the restrictions and paying the damages before the hearing date for the contempt proceedings.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that while the ICPC chairman is listed as judgement debtor/contemnor in the motion on notice for committal proceedings, FCMB and Zenith Bank are listed as 2nd and 3rd respondents respectively.
The motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1347/2021 was filed on 2 November 2023.
The judge, Mobolaji Olajuwon of the Federal High Court in Abuja, has fixed 8 February for hearing. (NAN)
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