The Abuja Vacation Judge of the National Industrial Court, Hon. Justice Oluwakayode Arowosegbe has dismissed the application filed by Heritage Bank Plc against the judgment creditors, Mr. Shehu Mudi & 658 others over the judgment debtor, Adamawa State Government and 3 others in its entirety for lacking merit.
Justice Arowosegbe held that the Heritage Bank’s argument and the invitation extended to the Court to overrule the Court of Appeal decision affirming the order absolute in an unmistakable fashion is vexatious and total abuse of process.
The Court awarded the sum of N15Million [Fifteen Million Naira Only] against Heritage Bank, and in favour of Mr. Shehu Mudi & 658 others as compensation for harassment by vexatious applications to delay the consummation of the order absolute and the mental and psychological tortures, which they had been made to suffer since 2018 when the judgment was delivered in their favour and yet not obeyed till date, in spite of the Court of Appeal decision more than a year ago that the order absolute be complied with within three days.
Meanwhile, Heritage Bank argued that it had even complied with the order absolute, by paying the sum in the account garnished, as at the date of the order nisi by which the account was attached. The applicant had appealed the decision of the COA at the Supreme Court [SC] on 16th March 2023 and, filed a motion for stay of execution and to restrain the judgment creditors from executing or enforcing the order absolute issued on 24th January 2023, until the determination of these countless numbers of processes, filed against the order absolute.
In opposition, the judgment creditors- Mr. Shehu Mudi & 658 others averred that Heritage Bank had flatly refused to comply fully with the order absolute, even as the Court of Appeal had ordered it to comply that, the processes filed by the bank amounted to contempt and abuse of process and urged the Court to dismiss the application.
Delivering the ruling, the presiding Judge, Justice Oluwakayode Arowosegbe affirmed that the order absolute made was to the tune of N649,442,923.49K [Six Hundred and Forty-Nine Million, Four Hundred and Forty-Two Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Three Naira, Forty-Nine Kobo] and Exhibit showed clearly that Heritage Bank purported compliance was only to the tune of N34,928.38K [Thirty-Four Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Eight Naira, Thirty-Eight Kobo] and another N1Mllion as cost which is tantamount to total non-compliance.
