Lagos – A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday gave the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 72 hours to furnish one Mr Boniface Okezie with details of the property recovered from a convicted former bank chief executive, Cecilia Ibru.
Cecelia Ibru
Ibru is former Managing Director of the defunct Oceanic Bank.
She was convicted of stealing money from the bank, resulting in the recovery of some of the money and property from her.
Okezie is the President of the Progressive Shareholders’ Association of Nigeria, who had applied through the court, seeking details of all the recovered property.
In a judgment, Justice Mohammed Idris held that the details should be made available to Okezie in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FoI).
He directed that CBN should indicate how much was recovered and returned to the Oceanic Bank and its shareholders.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria has no right to withhold the information sought by the plaintiff in this regard.
“All public institutions must ensure that they comply with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act in the greater interest of the public,'' the judge held.
He, however, refused Okezie's request for CBN to make available to him, the amount it paid to lawyers who prosecuted Ibru.
Okezie filed the suit against the CBN on May 10 through his counsel, Mr Chuks Nwachukwu.
Okezie had also stated in the originating summons that he had applied to the defendant to furnish him with the details in a letter dated Jan. 26,2012.
The plaintiff stated that the CBN acknowledged receipt of the letter, but refused to provide the details.
Counsel to CBN, Mr Ajayi Olawoyin, had argued in a counter-affidavit that provision of the information was not the duty of the bank.
He had also argued that supplying the plaintiff with the details of amounts paid to the lawyers would violate the terms of CBN's agreement with the lawyers.(NAN)
