Federal High Court Orders CBN, FG To Pay ALGON 960bn Naira

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has granted a ‘garnishee order absolute’ for 960 billion Naira against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Government.

The presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, gave the ruling on Tuesday in favour of the incorporated trustees of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON).

He ordered the CBN to debit the Federal Government’s account from funds already set aside by the apex bank, pursuant to an earlier ‘garnishee order nisi’ on April 1, 2015.

Reacting to the judgment, the Director-General of ALGON, Mr Ted Iseghohi-Edward, said that all 774 members of the association, together with the state governments and the Presidency would meet to decide how the said funds would be disbursed to the local governments across the country.

The incorporated trustee of ALGON had in 2013, dragged the Federal Government to court over alleged illegal deductions made by the government from the local government share of the Federation Account.

The association alleged that the deductions were made to liquidate the London Club debts which the government had borrowed from June 1995 to March 2002.