The National Industrial Court in Abuja has ordered United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) to pay N1.07 billion to former Kogi State Deputy Governor, Simon Achuba, to satisfy a judgment debt owed by the Kogi State Government.
Justice R. B. Haastrup delivered the judgment on November 27, making absolute an earlier garnishee order after finding that UBA failed to prove that the funds in the relevant Kogi State Government account were either World Bank–supported or jointly owned by 19 northern states.
Achuba, represented by human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), had urged the court to make the order absolute, citing UBA’s admission that it held sufficient funds in the Kogi State ACRESAL IDA Designated Account, a dollar account with the bank.
UBA argued that the money was sourced from the World Bank for environmental projects and was therefore unavailable to settle the debt. Justice Haastrup dismissed this claim, ruling that the bank provided no credible evidence to support it.
The court stated that once a garnishee admits the existence of funds sufficient to satisfy a judgment and cannot prove the funds are legally restricted, “the law does not permit depriving a successful litigant of the fruits of his judgment.”
UBA was ordered to pay the N1,070,860,138 outstanding judgment sum, N2 million as Court of Appeal costs, and N1 million as costs of the garnishee proceedings directly into Achuba’s Access Bank account. Other banks previously joined in the proceedings — Zenith, First, GTBank, Access, and Polaris — were discharged.
The ruling also marked a milestone in Achuba’s prolonged legal battle with the Kogi State Government over his controversial removal from office in 2019.
Justice Haastrup criticised the conduct of the state government’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), describing his application as malafide and intended to undermine the orders of the Court of Appeal and constitutional provisions. The court awarded N1 million personally against Daudu in favour of Achuba.
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