A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, this morning ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to declare the total cash and properties recovered from the former Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank, Mrs.Cecilia Ibru, within 72 hours.
The court also ordered that the apex bank should declare the location of the properties and the money recovered. The CBN was also ordered to make public what part of the cash and property had been returned to Oceanic Bank and its share holders. The order of the court was sequel to a suit filed by a Lagos lawyer, Chuks Nwachukwu, on behalf of Mr. Boniface Okezie, president of Progressive Shareholders Association.
He urged the CBN to disclose among other things the amount of legal fees paid to professionals and lawyers as well as Olanihun Ajayi and Kola Awodein Chambers in respect of the prosecution of Cecilia Ibru. The plaintiff claimed he wrote a letter to the CBN demanding to know these facts but the CBN refused to respond.
In a counter-affidavit filed by Prof. Gabriel Olawonyi on behalf of CBN, the apex bank said it was advised against releasing the information as it will violate the legal practitioner/client privilege.
In his judgement delivered this morning, the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, while not acceding to the request of the plaintiff that the amount paid to the lawyers involved should be disclosed, he ordered that the total cash and property recovered from Cecilia Ibru should be made public by the CBN within 72 hours.
He also ordered that the whereabouts of the properties and monies recovered should be made public.
PM NEWS
