The National Industrial Court in Abuja has directed United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) to pay N1.07 billion to former Kogi State Deputy Governor, Simon Achuba, in a long-running legal dispute with the Kogi State Government.
Justice R. B. Haastrup handed down the ruling on November 27, making absolute an earlier garnishee order after finding that UBA failed to prove the funds in the Kogi State ACRESAL IDA Designated Account were restricted or jointly owned by 19 northern states.
Achuba, represented by human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), had argued that the bank admitted to holding enough funds in the account to satisfy the judgment debt. UBA, however, claimed the money was sourced from the World Bank for environmental projects and therefore could not be used to pay Achuba. The court rejected the claim, citing lack of credible evidence.
Justice Haastrup stressed that “once a garnishee admits the existence of funds sufficient to satisfy a judgment and fails to prove such funds are legally restricted, the law does not permit depriving a successful litigant of the fruits of his judgment.”
UBA was ordered to pay N1,070,860,138, along with N2 million for Court of Appeal costs and N1 million for garnishee proceedings, directly into Achuba’s Access Bank account. Other banks previously involved — Zenith, First, GTBank, Access, and Polaris — were discharged.
The court also took a swipe at the Kogi State Government’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), describing his application as malafide and “aimed at undermining the orders of the Court of Appeal and constitutional provisions.” Daudu was personally ordered to pay N1 million in favour of Achuba.
The ruling is a major development in Achuba’s fight over his controversial removal from office in 2019 and reinforces the legal principle that judgment creditors cannot be denied access to funds they are legally entitled to.
