By Segun Bambo Ojomo.
Ordinarily, one would have thought that only the powers that be, flaunting political and executive positions, have graduated into the ability to disobey court orders or frustrate the execution of judgements but there seems to be the dawn of a new era in which even court officials under the jury who are supposed to implement court orders and judgements are also
Anifowose Bosun.
able to, not only unnecessarily delay implementation, but also indefinitely subvert justice.
A peculiar victim of such unfortunate subversion of justice is Bosun Anifowoshe, who was declared winner in a court case since May, 2013 but according to him, the court officials who are normally detailed to carry out judgement directives, have since then been clogs in the wheel of progress towards claiming his victory dividends.
Here is Bosun Anifowose’s story:
“My name is Bosun Anifowose, I have been in a legal tussle with a Nigeria based company named Moreno Group over money owed me by the company since 2012 which has not been paid till now. I got a duly awarded Local Purchase Order from the said company in May, 2012 to supply 9,600 bags of Dangote brand of cement totalling N22,176,000.00 to three of their Lagos State Government awarded contract sites viz. Ajibulu Link Bridge, Mafoluku( a project of the Lagos State Min. of Works); Intervention Project at Eric Moore( renovation of a secondary school, a project under the Lagos State Min. of Education) and the Arbitration Centre at LekkI ( a project under the Lagos State Min. of Justice), all in the Lagos metropolis”.
“To all these sites, the consignments of cement were duly delivered in accordance with the terms of the LPO,with all waybills duly acknowledged by the Project Managers of each of the project sites, and payment should have been made by the company in three weeks but alas and since then, it has been legal tussle between me and the company because of their well designed intention of not paying up the due”.
“Finally and fortunately, i won the legal battle in November, 2013 as the Abuja High Court ordered them to pay us the sum of N22,176,000.00 plus an extra award of N50,000.00 payable to us by them and also a judgement debt of 10percent to accrue until the final liquidation of the debt”.
“Despite all these due processes followed, the company still failed to pay which led me to court again to get approval to attach some of their landed properties to the judgement debt. The properties included two semi-detached bungalows at Trademore Estate, Lugbe, Abuja and a bare land on Abuja International Airport road also in Lugbe, Abuja”.
“This move by me forced them (the company) out of hiding and they also went to court to file briefs but at the end of the tussle, I secured already three judgements against them.”.
“The major problem now and for which I am crying out to all well-meaning Nigerians is that despite all these efforts at securing my due, the court officials at the site of judgement including the Registrar, the Deputy Sheriff and the Director of Enforcement have been doing everything to frustrate me by their already five-year delay in enforcing judgement, and as a matter of fact, a date was fixed for the auction of the said properties but to my dismay, a few days to the auction date, the notice on it posted on the board of the Abuja High Court was removed without my knowledge”.
“Out of frustration, I again went to court to seek an order compelling the officers to enforce execution but the presiding judge delivered that the order had already been granted and said our request could easily have been taken as an abuse of the rule of law”.
“After all these, i proceeded to writing a petition to the Registrar, High Court and the Chief Justice of the Abuja FCT detailing all my encountered frustrations but up till now, nothing has been done”.
“My primary objective now is to get my money back while letting the whole country know the depth of corruption in our judicial system. It is often said that the court of law is the final hope of the common man but as it is now, only heaven seems to be the common man’s hope”.
“I strongly believe that the Nigerian judiciary can step into this case fully to ensure quick dispatch of justice as the people owing me are not bankrupt but still moving around and going on with their businesses as if nothing is amiss”.
“For crying out loud and from business experience, I am aware that if a sum of over N22million is sat upon since 2012, by compound interest, the amount should have accrued to nothing less than N40million by now”.
“I desperately implore that the powers that be step into and solve this my situation which amounts rudely to gross violation of inalienable human right”.
Adesina Oke, Chairman, Moreno Group.
This account by Bosun is clearly self- explanatory enough to attract attention and also engender quick resolution by the top echelon of the nation’s judiciary, especially as failure to address the issue could lead to further battering of the already dented image of the Nigerian judicial system.
Nicola Busacca, MD, Moreno Group.
Our Abuja correspondent twice visited the Abuja Federal High Court to seek audience with the Officer in charge of Enforcement but unfortunately was informed on both cccasions that the officer was not available at the office.
It would be recalled that the Chief Judge of the court involved in this saga, that is, the Abuja Federal High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello recently signed the new Practice Direction for Enforcement of Judgements and Orders of Magistrates and Judges in the Federal Capital Territory. The Practice Direction which is aimed at reposing the confidence of the public in the administration of justice was instituted to remove bottlenecks and frustrations that successful litigants encounter in the process of reaping their justice dividends. The major obstacle to this is the filing of Notice of Appeal and Stay of Execution which, if done by the judgement debtor, leads to an indefinite clog in the judgement creditor’s wheel of progress.
If this Practice Direction had been the order before the Bosun case came to the lime, it could have been probable that the officers in charge of enforcement in the same court would have been tied by law to perform their duties with dispatch.
By and large, while this step by Justice Ishaq Bello is laudable and needed to set a precedence for all other courts nationwide, the effectiveness and sincerity attachable to the new Practice Direction would go a long way in redefining and remoulding Nigeria’s justice administration process.
