Justice Ademola Adeniyi of a Federal High Court in Abuja has
ordered the freezing of accounts belonging to Benue and Plateau
states in Skye Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and First
City Monument Bank Plc over their alleged refusal to release funds
for the payment of wages and allowances of court workers in the
affected states.
The court gave the order on Monday while ruling on two ex-parte
applications filed by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN),
which sought to attach the states’ accounts in the banks over
their alleged refusal to pay about N1.6billion to comply with the
January 13, 2014, judgement delivered by the judge.
“An order nisi is hereby made attaching the money belonging to
the 15th and 16th judgment debtors/respondents domiciled with
Skye Bank Plc, Makurdi Branch – account number 170008758, to
satisfy the judgement awarded in favour of the judgement creditor/
applicant,” the judge said.
He also
made a
similar
order in
relation to Plateau State’s accounts in the other banks. The judge
ordered the garnishee “to show cause why the order nisi should
not be made absolute by the court.”
Justice Ademola, in the 2014 judgement, affirmed the financial
autonomy status granted the judiciary by the constitution and
abolished the piecemeal funding of the arm of government by the
states’ governments.
The union stated, in their ex-parte motions, that the amount due
to Benue State judiciary as at March 2015 is N957,630,349.57 and
the amount due to the Plateau State judiciary for the same period
is N673,019,948.19.
The governors and the attorney-general of both states were listed
as the 15th and 16th; 63rd and 64th defendants in the motions.
JUSUN said Benue and Plateau, who were parties in the main suit,
had “bluntly refused to obey the judgement of the court.”
It said the judiciary of both states owed their workers, who are
members of the union, “arrears of salary and other funds due to
them up to March 2015.”
They stated, in the supporting affidavits, that all efforts made to
both states’ governments “to comply with the judgement of this
honourable court fell on deaf ears.”
The case has been adjourned to June 1, three days after the May
29 date for the handover to the incoming administrations in both
states.

source: http://leadership.ng/news/432709/unpaid-salaries-court-freezes-plateau-benue-accounts

lf the account is frozen how can they pay their workers

good ,up Nigerian judiciary .