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Businessman urges court to order arrest of ex-Imo State Information commissioner

By Yetunde Ayobami Ojo
03 November 2015   |   1:36 am
A Lagos-based businessman, Louis Okere, has urged the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to order the arrest of a former Commissioner for Information in Imo State, Theodore Ekechi, for allegedly disobeying an order directing him to appear before it.

appeal-courtA Lagos-based businessman, Louis Okere, has urged the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to order the arrest of a former Commissioner for Information in Imo State, Theodore Ekechi, for allegedly disobeying an order directing him to appear before it.

He alleged that Ekechi refused to comply with the terms of settlement of a consent judgment they both agreed to in 2009 to resolved the ownership crisis over a company, Marketing and Media Limited, in which they were both shareholders.

According to the terms of settlement, which was also endorsed by the court as its judgment, the asset of the company, including money were shared between Okere and Ekechi in the ratio of 60 percent and 40 percent.

The court had ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff 60 percent of the sum of N202,846,420.89 million being the total worth or value of the receivables due to the company and another N35 million in three instalments.

To support his claim in the suit, he filed an affidavit to claim that even though the defendant have earned enough money after the date the judgment was entered to liquidate the judgment-debt, he has refused to fully comply with the judgment.

Also,Okere alleged that rather than the combined total judgment sum of N156,707,852.53million only N54,554,194.55 million was paid, leaving the sum of N102,153,657.98million still outstanding.

He submitted that the judgment-debtor has no regard for the court and they have no intention of obeying the order unless compelled by the court.

After listening to submission, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia issued a Judgment Summons asking Ekechi to appear before her to be examined on oath on why he had refused to comply with the consent judgment.

However, when the came up for hearing, the judgment-debtors failed to appear in court, a development that made Okere to asked the court to order his arrest.

But Ekechi through his counsel, Ola Oshikoya told the court that he has filed an application seeking stay of further proceedings in the suit pending the hearing and determination of an appeal he instituted to challenge the summons,

The matter is adjourned to December 9, 2015.

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