An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan on Monday, struck out an ex-parte motion filed by the 68 former council chairmen in the Oyo state, asking for an order to garnishee the account of the state government over what they described as the refusal of Governor Seyi Makinde’s to obey the Supreme Court judgment, mandating the state government to pay all their salaries and entitlements till their last day in office as council chairmen.
Delivering the verdict, Justice Ademola Adegbola of the Oyo State High Court in Ibadan said the sum of N7, 345, 072,979.69, claimed by the applicants in their relief was not stated in the Supreme Court judgment and the court can’t be left to conjectures. The court held that garnishee proceedings must be certain and imputed.
“The amount is not stated in the Supreme Court judgment. The reliefs the judgment creditors are claiming cannot be given to them. I have read the Supreme Court judgment on which this ex-parte application was premised and I did not see anywhere that the sum was stated.
“Therefore, I will not grant the motion. The reliefs are hereby refused and the ex-parte application is hereby struck out with the preliminary objection of the judgment debtors,” Justice Adegbola held.
Counsel to the chairmen, Barrister Abiodun Amole, had said that the N7,345,072,979.69 claimed by the applicants was the sum of their salaries and entitlements the Supreme Court asked the Oyo State Government to pay.
According to the applicants’ counsel, the amount was computed by an auditing firm based on the current scale being used, adding that the computation has been sent to the defendants since mid-June. He also added that they didn’t dispute it.
It will be recalled that the Supreme Court had in its judgment on May 7, 2021, ordered the Oyo State Government to pay all the salaries and entitlements of the chairmen on or before August 7, 2021.
Makinde had removed the chairmen on May 29, 2019, few hours after he was sworn in as the governor, and asked the sacked chairmen to go back to the apex court for clarification and interpretation of the judgment it delivered on May 7, 2021.
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