Anayo Ezugwu Justice Akintunde Savage of a Lagos State High Court, Ikeja on Thursday set aside the Order of committal against a businessman, Dada Aigbe who was sentenced to one-month imprisonment for contempt.
The judge gave the ruling following prayer by Kingsley Uche Okoro, counsel to Aigbe, the Chairman of Confidence Cargo, Freight Forwarder, on the ground that Form 49 was not properly served on him.
It would be recalled that the court had adjourned till Thursday to rule on the application after listening to the arguments from both parties.
In moving his application before the court, Okoro informed the court that it was dated April 29, 2024, and it was pursuant to section 60b (36) of the Nigerian constitution and section 94 of the sheriff’s law.
He noted that Aigbe is seeking relief of the court to set aside the entire committal proceedings on the ground that Aigbe was served by an unknown sheriff and such further order.
Justice Savage had in March 2024 ordered the remand of Dada Aigbe in Kirikiri Prison for disobeying a court order and for interfering in a land matter over which he is not a party, although there have been reports that the land in question was bought by Confidence Cargo Limited for the purpose of construction of a bounded terminal.
Counsel to the judgment creditor, Mr Jimoh Akogun had also informed the court that he has filed a response to the preliminary objection, saying that the judgment debtor is only recycling issues that have already been determined.
Reacting to the judgement, Aigbe’s counsel, Okoro said: “The judgment is a ruling that is lucid, very direct and credible, in terms of the fact that the court took time to point out the issues of law that were involved in the matter especially the grant of the committal order by the court until when we file an application to set it aside.
“On grounds that there are certain conditions as required by law as stated in the case of Madaku and Nnemdilim that before a court should assume jurisdiction, it must satisfy itself that it had jurisdiction.
“Moreover if there is a precedence for a matter to be initiated or for a matter to proceed that condition must be satisfied. One of the conditions that we observed, there was no compliance with, was the issue of form 49.
“Under the judgment enforcement procedure rules, section 36, subsection 1 &2 to 3 request that for you to effectively proceed to issue of committal proceedings, the court must satisfy itself that form 48 and 49 must have been served. Form 48 is to inform,” Okoro added.
