Debtors & Recovery | |
Debtors & Recovery | |
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Thursday,
October 3, 2019 / 03:35PM / By Tony Nnadi
Esq / Header Image Credit: writeady.com
Being the text of the public notice published in newspapers
titled: PUBLIC ATTENTION TO THE LAST LETTER OF DEMAND WRITTEN BY INTERSTELLA
COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA, CBN
(COPIED TO THE HON. ATTORNEY- GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION: & TO THE CHIEF OF
STAFF TO THE PRESIDENT, FRN), PLEADING FOR THE CBN TO COMPLY WITH THE 2017
JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA IN A MANNER THAT WOULD NOT DISRUPT THE
FINANCIAL SYSTEM, PUBLIC CONVENIENCE A. ORDER: AND AT THE SAME TIME PREVENT
OFFSHORE EMBARRASSMENT TO NIGERIA.
September
02, 2019
The
Governor
Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Central
Business District
Abuja.
Attention:
Godwin Emefiele
Your
Excellency
FINAL
LETTER OF DEMAND FOR PAYMENT OF A SUM OF $285,124,422,30 (Two hundred and
Eighty-Five million, One Hundred and Twenty-Four thousand, Four hundred and
Twenty Two US dollars and Thirty cents) IN COMPLIANCE WITH JUDGMENT OF THE
SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA IN SUIT NO SC 500/2014 DELIVERED AGIANST THE CBN IN
OUR FAVOR ON 15TH DECEMBER 2017.
This
is our 3rd and FINAL letter to you Sir, by which we respectfully
demand, from the CBN, payment of all sums owed us flowing from the above
SUPREME COURT Judgment. We first wrote you on 16th January 2018 and
demanded payment of all due sums as of that date On 24th May, 2019,
we wrote you again on the same subject. Unfortunately, we have not received any
response to any of the above letters.
When
we reconciled the outstanding sums owed us by the CBN with the Office of the
Hon Attorney - General of the Federation and Minister for Justice on 25th
June 2018, the parties arrived at a sum $260,113,393,50 payable within on
interest free period of 30 days. As of this 2nd day of September
2019, the sum due and payable to us by the CBN is $285,124,422.30 (Two hundred
and Eighty-Five million, One hundred and Twenty Four thousand, Four hundred and
Twenty Two US dollars and Thirty cents).
We
now DEMAND that the CBN pays us the above sum of $285,124,422.30 (Two
hundred and Eighty-Five million, One hundred and Twenty-Four thousand, Four
hundred and Twenty -Two US Dollars and Thirty cents) BY OR BEFORE 16TH
day of September 2019 per following account details:
As
you are aware Sir, by our letter of 1st April 2019, we served you a
World-wide Assets-freezing Order or Mareva Injunction, against assets of the
Central Bank of Nigeria up to a tune of $1.5 billion as security towards
satisfaction of Equitable Remedies Claimed by us pending determination of an
underlying action grounded an tort for Damages, and huge Financial Directly
from the CBN's Disobedience, And Being In Contempt, Of The Supreme Court
Judgement of 15th December 2017, in Appeal No.SC, 500/2014, Between CBN
v. Interstella Communication Ltd, & 3 Ors.
In
the said letter (of 1st April 2019), we conciliatorily stated as
follows:
"You
will note Sir, that though we are reeling with the pains od CBN's hurtful and
unfair discriminatory conduct against us, we still restrained extra territorial
impact on Nigeria. Hence , we have elected to (a)
not give publicity to this Order become of the nature of the accounts we are
freezing: this is in Order to protect such information from predatory
exploitation; (b) we deliberately
inserted prayers for the extant Orders 3 and 4 in our Application to the Hon
Court: our intention was to minimize the impact of the freezing order and
thereby encourage the CBN to do the right, wise, prudent and judicious thing by
paying the existing debt without provoking us to activate the Order worldwide (c) We are mindful of the fact that offshore
proceedings may highlight the extreme dysfunctions and irregularities in the
machinery of governance in Nigeria today the Administration's attitude to court
orders and probity. It is therefore our wish that the CBN does not compel us to
proceed against it offshore and thereby unwittingly being observance of Rule of
how in Nigeria under the Buhari Administration into question. Besides, it will
be quite ridiculous and an embarrassing spectacle for Nigeria to be a defendant
in a foreign jurisdiction against the judgment or orders of her own municipal
courts, particularly her supreme Court judgment. There are things no
self-respecting nation should EVER allow to happen to her image before comity
of civilized nations. We are therefore appealing to you Sir, to use your good
Office to prevent a situation that could be quite embarrassing for the entire
Administration offshore. We waited patiently for the Elections to be concluded
so that no mischievous bigot is given on opportunity to impute political or
other motives into our act, in a democracy, Judgment of Courts of competent
jurisdiction, MUST be obeyed even by the President or Prime Minister, as the
case may be. WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT GIVEN THE FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR
CASE, NO DEFENCE WILL AVAIL THE CBN OFFSHORE. Indeed, to the contrary,
it is highly unlikely that a USA court will decline her citizens a relief or
judgment that a foreign jurisdiction (Nigeria) has already granted us in
proceedings at the municipal court of that same sovereign country (Nigeria).
The CBN should therefore be encouraged to do damage control by complying FULLY
with either Order 1 or Orders 4 and 5 within seven days onshore, as the only
reasonable options available to it in the instant Asset-Freezing Order without
making further fuss, if the CBN intends to contain the fallouts and impact
within Nigeria. Where the CBN opts to be prudent by electing to abide by Order
4 and 5, it should be well understood that not one dime of accumulated interest
will be waived."
The
CBN unfortunately, elected not to reciprocate our good faith consideration for
not activating the Order extra-territorially since 7th April, 2019
as granted by the honorable court. Despite that, we still have not activated
the WORLDWIDE effect of the said Asset-Freezing Order, Perhaps the CBN opted to
dare us!
We
respectively ask that you advert your mind, Sir, to the following unusual
circumstances of the instant case in order for you to appreciate the degree and
magnitude of the collateral damages Nigeria could suffer within the comity of
Nations consequents upon the CBN's conduct on this matter, if we had been hawkish
extra-territorially. We persevered in adopting less controversial measures
because Nigeria is not just a country.
Nigeria
represents Africa and the Black race. Nigeria's standing or stature, behavior,
conduct or attitude is used as a yardstick to measure the developmental, moral,
culturally and intellectually capacity of the Black race. It is her
responsibility and divinely ordained sacred burden to behave herself as a role
model for ALL descendants of the African race before the world. Unfortunately,
sometimes some Nigerian leaders and bureaucrats either fail to realize this
burden in their public acts or just couldn't care less.
However,
on our side, we were soberly mindful of the following consequently we sought to
limit our actions so far within Nigeria:
While
we were being very mindful of above facts, it is surprising to us that unlike
ourselves, the CBN, an institution staffed by Nigeria's exceptionally
intelligent people who are otherwise dedicatedly serving their country's
interest, does not see and try to avert the potential scandal and danger ahead,
which indeed we have sacrificed to save her from suffering.
We
now disclose to you Sir, that in addition to the above offshore scenario, we
have a fieri facias (fi fa) Order since April 2019, which authorizes us to
disrupt the CBN operations locally in order to compel the CBN to respect and
obey the SUPREME COURT ORDERS. Again, we have been reluctant to execute the
fieri facias Order because we do not want unnecessary public drama, negative
and embarrassing publicity for the Administration, and the inevitable adverse
effect which will DEFINITELY bring a lot of inconvenience to innocent citizens
as well as the business community in Nigeria. What other sacrifice do we have
to make before our lawful money is paid to us.
However,
haying demonstration the level of restraint, reasonableness and sense of
responsibility listed above in the expectation that the CBN will reciprocate by
paying us the CBN having unfortunately chosen not to do so till today, we are
satisfied that no reasonable entity can blame us for any coercive.
Action
we now feel compelled to take. Even then, we are hereby once more, and for the
LAST TIME, pleading with you Sir, to obey SUPREME COURT ORDERS by paying us the
above debt sum BY OR BEFORE 16TH day of September 2019; failing
which we SHALL exercise ALL other lawful options available to us. In other
words, we are hereby appealing to you, and respectfully putting you on good
faith NOTICE, Sir, that we will activate ALL options available to us in law, to
collect all sums payable to us along with costs, if the CBN fails to pay us the
debt sums BY OR BEFORE 16TH day of September 2019.
Thank
you very much, Sir, and accept assurances of our highest esteem for your good
self and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
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