The Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to commence deduction of over N40billion from the Federation Allocation Account for Ebonyi State Government and remittance of same to a consulting firm.
In its Order Absolute, the Court also ruled the Ebonyi State Government should pay the firm, ANDREW BISHOPTON NIG LIMITED and its partners, Mauritz Walton Nig Limited, N118,787,380.00 and other sums for failing to keep to the terms of the contract agreement, it entered with the latter.
The court also ordered the CBN to withdraw US29,854,856.9 and another N30,100,000,000.00 from the state’s accounts and remit to the company.
Ebonyi State Government contracted ANDREW BISHOPTON NIG LIMITED in 2016 to pursue and recover monies illegally deducted on its foreign and local loans and facilities especially the Paris club refund.
The firm, it was gathered, approached the Court following the State Government’s alleged reluctance to keep to the agreed contract terms, a development that led to the arrest and detention of a senior staff of the consultancy organisation, Mrs Jackie Ikeotuonye, by the former.
The Court, presided over by Justice S. Dalyop Pam, in its Order Absolute, ruled that one of the Applicants or Judgment Creditors, ANDREW
