$53m judgement debt: Court erred in summoning me — Emefiele

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has argued that the summons for him to appear before a Federal High Court in Abuja over a $53million judgement debt arising from the Paris Club refunds was made in error. 

In a notice of appeal filed before the Court of Appeal in Abuja by his counsel, Damian Dodo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Emefiele said the summons of the High Court on October 20, 2022 to compel his attendance on January 18 was entered after some notices of appeal against the enforcement of the judgement debt, which robbed the High Court of jurisdiction to summon him.

While maintaining that Emefiele was not the judgement debtor and a party before the court in the suit involving Joe Agi, Linas International Ltd, and the minister of finance, Dodo also refuted media reports that he and other lawyers in the matter were summoned by the court. 

“The learned trial court erred in law, which occasioned a miscarriage of justice when it compelled and ordered the first appellant (Emefiele) to appear personally without determining one way or another, the appellant’s challenge of the court’s jurisdiction,” Dodo said. 

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 The suit arose over an alleged $70million judgement debt over the lawyer’s services in the Paris Club refund, which Emefiele was said to have released only $17m, leaving an outstanding $53m.