Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, June 11, 2004.
Court stops
N258m deduction from Anambra allocation
By Okey Maduforo
Correspondent, Awka
The Federal High Court Abuja on Thursday
vacated an injunction secured by Hallmark Bank Plc. in May last year, which
ordered the deduction of N258 million from the federal accounts allocation
committee for Anambra State.
The vacation of the injunction was sequel
to a motion filed by the Anambra State Attorney-General and Commissioner for
Justice, Chief Nnoruka Udechukwu (SAN), stating that the order had elapsed.
Making the vacation, the presiding judge,
Justice Binta Nyako, turned down the prayers of the counsel to Hallmark Bank,
Chief Chris Uche (SAN). Uche agreed with counsel to the state government that
the injunction had elapsed but prayed that the bank be given three months as it
is into negotiation with the Anambra State Government.
According to Udechukwu, the plea for three
more months is a ploy to buy time by the bank in order to continue with its
deductions from the state’s Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).
The sum of N258 million loan was allegedly
obtained by the then Governor Chimaroke Mbadinuju’s administration for
the supply of mass transit buses, which were allegedly withdrawn by the bank
some days after they were supplied and commissioned by President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
A press release signed by the Senior
Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Fred Chukwuelobe,
said on assumption of office, Governor Chris Ngige’s administration had
gone to court to stop series of frivolous irrevocable standing payment orders
(ISPO) running into millions of naira, which he said were drawn from the
Anambra State Government allocation through the federal Ministry of Finance
Abuja.
“The Anambra State Government had
also referred the questionable ISPOs to the contract review, debt and property
recovery tribunal. Hallmark Bank, rather than go to the tribunal to defend the
questionable ISPO, went to the court and secured an injunction freezing the
Anambra State account to the tune of N258 million,” Chukwuelobe said.
July 27, 2004, has been fixed for hearing
of the main suit.
