Court orders NIS to pay ex-staff N9.7m

The National Industrial Court, Abuja, on Thursday issued a garnishee order on bank accounts of Nigeria Immigration Service, to pay an ex-staff, Oguntoyinbo Made his salary arrears of N9.7 million.

Garnishee proceeding is judicial enforcement of monetary judgment whereby money belonging to a judgment debtor, in the possession of a third party, usually a bank, is seized by a judgment creditor.

The motion which sought to garnishee the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Polaris accounts of NIS was granted by Justice Olufunke Anuwe.

The judge has granted the application adjourned the matter until July 12 to enable the two banks to show cause while the money of the judgment debtor ( NIS) with them should not be used to pay the judgment creditor ( Made)

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the same court on April 10 delivered judgment in favour of Made ordering NIS to pay him arrears of his salary within 60 days.

The salary as ordered by the court was for July 1, 1999, to Aug.31,2014.

In addition to the salary arrears of N9.7 million, the court in the judgment also directed the NIS to pay Made the sum of N2million as general damages and awarded the sum of N250,000 to him as cost of prosecuting the suit.

NAN further reports that there was a direction by the court that the judgment should be complied within 60 days adding that failure to comply would attract 21 per cent interest on the judgment sums.

The failure of the Service to comply with the court’s judgment that had necessitated the application.