The Federal High Court, Abeokuta, Ogun State, has threatened to begin committal proceeding against the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), if nine of the 24 petroleum-laden tanker trucks illegally seized from petroleum marketers at Idiroko, Ogun state are not released before June 5, 2023.
The presiding judge, Justice Adefumilayo Demi-Ajayi giving an order, on Monday, said the trucks should be released on or before June 5, 2023, which happened to be the next adjourned date or the court will proceed with the application of committal proceedings already before the court against the Customs CG by the judgement creditors.
It would be recalled that the judgement creditors, Olamitide International Limited & 7 Others have gotten a judgement in suit No: FHC/AB/CS/8/2020 against the Nigeria Customs Service Board & another.
The case was concluded before Hon. Justice M. Shittu Abubakar sitting at the Federal High Court No.1, Abeokuta, Ogun State and judgement was delivered on August 9th, 2023.
The Court in its final judgement ordered the release of all the said 24 Tanker Trucks Vehicles with all the petroleum (PMS) contents unlawfully impounded and seized by the men and officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (Border Drill operation Unit) sometime on 10th November 2019.
But, instead of releasing the 24 tanker trucks as ordered by the court, the service sold 15 out of the tankers with its content as scrap, thereby, disobeying valid Court judgement.
Speaking to newsmen, the Counsel to the judgement Creditors, Barr. George Oyeniyi wondered why the service disobeyed lawful court judgement by auctioning 15 out of the 24 fuel-laden tankers.
According to him, the auctioning was deliberately done because they were hurriedly carried out during the committal proceeding.
He said, “When we went to Ikorodu warehouse on Friday, they told us an order came from Abuja to sell the trucks of which the position before the court is that no appeal and no stay of execution because no one can’t stay judgement of court when there is no valid appeal and you can’t sit to disobey lawful court order and on that basis, we are compelled to initiate this action that the court should send the Comptroller General to prison for disobeying the order of court.
“They are denying that those things are intact and that was why we agreed that both lawyers should go to where those things are located and we went there on Friday with the representatives of the Custom’s lawyer and officers at the warehouse told us everything has been auctioned.
“The next step is to get the monetary value of the tanker trucks. Also, the court awarded N20m in our favor, all these haven’t been complied with so, if the Customs will come to court to send smugglers to prison, are they too big to obey the order of court asking them to release truck illegally confiscated?”
“The judge will go ahead with the application of committal proceedings already before the court because we are at Midway of it and they say they want to confirm and now it has been confirmed. They are disobeying court order since August 2022, they even sold part of the subject matter of the court,” Oyeniyi stated.
The Counsel to the Nigeria Customs Service, Onyeka Anigbogu, apologised to the court, saying she would ensure that the 9 trucks are released by the Customs to the owners before the next adjourned date.
Anigbogu further disclosed that her hands are tied on the release of the vehicles which the justice asked her to ensure that the vehicles are released or she would grant committal proceeding against the Customs CG.
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