A Federal High Court sitting in Gusau, Zamfara State, has ordered the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to produce the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kenneth Ebrison and the Divisional Police Officer, Central Division, Gusau, before it on Monday (today).
The order of the court followed an alleged case of contempt preferred against Ebrison and the DPO over the halting of the execution of a judgement delivered by Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu.
The presiding judge, Justice Aminu, said the Zamfara State police commissioner and the DPO were to appear before the court to purge themselves of the contempt charge leveled against them.
Recall that the Assets Management Company of Nigeria had dragged the Zamfara State Government and 14 local government areas of the state to court over their failure to re-pay a N500million loan obtained from Unity Bank Plc.
A contempt proceeding was initiated against the Zamfara State Government, the Commissioner of Police and the Divisional Police Officer, Central Division, Gusau, for failure to appear before the court on Tuesday, June 5, after they had been duly served.
At the hearing, counsel for the judgement creditor, P M Lasco, said the Zamfara Commissioner of Police and the DPO halted the execution of the court’s judgement.
He, therefore, urged the court to charge them for contempt.
The presiding judge, in her ruling, ordered the IGP to produce the two police officers before the court on Monday, June
11.
Justice Aminu had earlier delivered a judgement in which the claims of the 14 local government areas were dismissed over the vehicles at Cotonou Shehi in Gusau and ordered the court’s Sheriff to release the vehicles to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria.
The court further directed AMCON to invite professional valuers to value the vehicles before auctioning them to recover the amount claimed by the judgement
creditor.
The 14 local government areas, however, rushed to the Court of Appeal, Sokoto, to challenge the verdict of the Gusau Federal High Court.
Justice M L Shuaibu of the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court,
Gusau.
It was in the process of auctioning the vehicles, as ordered by the court, that the police intervened and stopped the exercise.
