THE NATION

A Bayelsa State High Court in Yenagoa, the state capital, has threatened to jail the State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Biriyai Sambo (SAN), over his refusal to obey an order of the court directing the state government to pay N1.006bn being payment for the construction of the State High Court Complex.

The court said in a suit No. YHC/26/2019, filed by Rematon Services Limited (claimant) against the state government, Sambo also declined the second order for the government to remit the same sum into the court’s account pending an appeal in a higher court.

The court said in another order in suit No. YHC/25M/2021 issued by Justice D.E. Adokeme after Sambo refused to honour its judgment ordering the respondent (state government) to pay the remaining N1.006bn of the total contract sum of N2,083,100,069 to the claimant, the court refused the stay of execution motion filed by the respondent’s counsel, Tarilade Inomoghe Esq.

The court said it further directed that the state government should pay the judgments sum of N1, 006,157,040 into an interest-yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the Bayelsa State Judiciary.

The court said again, after the refusal of the attorney-general to respect the order of the court and shunned threat of being committed to jail; it ordered that the claimant (Rematon Services Limited) serve the respondent through substituted service by pasting it on the gate of the Ministry of Justice.

The judgment creditor, Remanton Services Limited, through Mrs. Boma Ojokojo, the widow of the former owner and Chief Executive Officer, had approached the State High Court to claim that the total contract sum for the construction of the Bayelsa State High Court complex was N3, 563,100,069,000.00

The claimant had said she only received N2,576,943,029,17 from the respondent and that the state government was still owing her (the claimant) the sum of N1,006,157,040,71.