Saraki heeds court’s warning, pays Omo-Agege’s entitlements
The development, on Thursday, put an end to the contempt
proceedings initiated by Omo-Agege against the Senate President, Dr.
Bukola Saraki, before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Omo-Agege’s lawyer, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), informed Justice Nnamdi
Dimgba on Thursday that his client was paid on October 12, 2018, barely
24 hours after the court warned Saraki to either pay the judgment debt
or appear in court to face the contempt proceedings.
Justice Dimgba issued the warning on October 11, 2018 after he
opted to give “the alleged contemnor (Saraki) another opportunity to
remedy the alleged wrong”.
Omo-Agege had initiated the committal proceedings praying that
Saraki be sent to prison as punishment for flouting the May 10, 2018
judgment of the court which ordered him (Omo-Agege) to be reinstated
from illegal suspension and be paid all his accrued benefits for the
period of the voided suspension.
Izinyon had complained in the Form 49, the contempt charge
instituted against Saraki, that while his client had been allowed to
resume to the Senate, Saraki had allegedly continued to flout the order
directing that the applicant be paid all his entitlements.
He said Saraki, in flouting the judgment, had refused to give an approval to the payment as ordered by the court.
The hearing of the committal proceedings was scheduled for October
11, but the alleged contemnor and his lawyers were absent from court.
Omo-Agege’s lawyer, Izinyon, informed the court that the defence
did not show up in court despite having been served with the court
processes and the hearing notice via newspaper publication as ordered by
the court.
He had urged the court to proceed with the hearing in their
absence, but the court opted to give the Senate President another chance
and adjourned till Thursday.
At the Thursday’s proceedings, Izinyon told the judge that his
client had been paid on October 12, which was a day after the judge
issued a warning to the Senate President.
Izinyon said Saraki was served with the court order of October 11,
along with a letter from his chambers informing him of the Thursday’s
proceedings.
He said the next day, on October 12, one of the Senate President’s
Special Assistants reached him that his client had nine cheques.
The senior lawyer said he received and acknowledged the receipt of nine cheques on behalf of the senator.
According to the lawyer, when the cheques were presented to
Omo-Agege, the senator acknowledged that there was a shortfall of N6m.
He said when notified, the Senate President’s aide acknowledged
that the senator’s claim was correct and admitted that the shortfall
arose from an error of computation
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