Wale Akinselure
The Attorney General of the State and Commissioner for Justice, Professor Oyelowo Oyewo, SAN, has explained that the state government is not in disobedience to the garnishee order of the court on its Local Government accounts.
Justice A. O. Ebong, of a High court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, had in the ruling given on March 2, 2023, on the motion marked: FCT/HC/BW/M/238/2023, ordered four banks to show cause why the order nisi should not be made absolute.
The garnishee proceeding, initiated for the chairmen and councillors by their lawyer, Musibau Adetunbi, is in the execution of a judgment they got against the Oyo State governor and six others from the Supreme Court on May 7, 2021.
However, the state Attorney General, on Monday, in reacting to the court ruling on the disobedience of the court order, said while it had paid N1.5 billion out of N4.2b, it was in the process of paying.
Oyewo said the process of paying was affected by the cash swap policy which disrupted its plans and its finances.
He said the state spread the payment across a spectrum and was obligated to pay in instalments.
Oyewo said: “The state is not in disobedience of the court order. Out of N4.2b, we have paid N1.5bn and we were also in the process of paying. But because of the cash swap policy, that disrupted our plans, so, the finances were disrupted and we could not.
“We are not in disobedience of the Court and we are going to go to the court, and also we observed that the Federal Capital Territory does not have jurisdiction on that matter, but these are matters that will be brought before the court.
“Oyo State is amenable to instalment payment and even the judgements that were given during Ajimobi’s administration, we are still paying them. The obligation that the payment has is spread across the spectrum.
“At the end of the day, the court will give a hearing and we are amenable to instalment payment and we are still going to go to court and quash the order.”
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