The Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed February 2, 2021 to rule on whether or not it has jurisdiction to entertain an application filed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria seeking to seize the funds in the bank accounts of the 2019 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State, Chief Great Ogboru, and his firm, Fiogret Limited.
AMCON said it was seeking to recover a judgment debt of N784m from Ogboru and his firm.
Justice Maureen Onyetenu fixed the date last week after taking arguments from AMCON’s lawyer, Mr Kunle Ogunba (SAN), and counsel for Ogboru and his firm, Chief Nelson Imoh.
In an ex parte application filed before the judge, AMCON said the N784m debt arose from a July 5, 2013 consent judgment entered in its favour by Justice Okon Abang.
The corporation said contrary to its expectation, about seven years after Justice Abang’s judgment, Fiogret Limited and Ogboru “have not taken any step(s) to satisfy/liquidate the judgment sum and the accruable interest.”
AMCON said its investigation revealed that Fiogret and Ogboru had accounts in 22 banks in Nigeria. It prayed the court to summon all the banks to disclose how much Fiogret Limited and Ogboru had with them and for the court to make an order attaching the funds “to prevent the judgment debtors from dissipating their funds with the various garnishees (banks).”
The corporation said this was the only means by which it could “reap the fruits of its hard-earned judgment in the suit herein.”
But Fiogret Limited and Ogboru are challenging Justice Onyetenu’s jurisdiction to hear AMCON’s ex parte application seeking the seizure of their funds.
The firm and the businessman said they had already appealed Justice Abang’s July 5, 2013 judgment up to the Supreme Court, while their Motion on Notice praying for a stay of execution of the judgment was also pending before the apex court.