Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
A federal high court sitting in Jalingo has issued a warrant of arrest on the Managing Director of Taraba Investment and Property Company Limited, Mr Ezekiel Iliya, and two others Mr Chris Apaji and Veronica Musa, for contempt of court.
Presiding Judge Stephen Pam, who issued the warrant of arrest on a Monday, ordered the three persons to be brought before the court on 16th January 2020.
The arrest warrant was in pursuant to an ex parte motion brought before the court by the Plaintiff, Mr Benjamin Orume, and eight others on 2nd December 2019.
In the motion, the certified true copy of which was also obtained by our correspondent, the plaintiff (Mr Benjamin Orume and eight others, who are the Directors of Taraba Micro Finance Bank) prayed the court to restrain the defendants (Ezekiel Iliya, Veronica Musa, and Chris Apaji) from interfering with the activities of the bank, pending the determination of the case before the court.
The court, after reading the affidavit in support of the motion sworn to by one Mallam Nasiru Baba of Taraba Micro Finance Bank, and hearing the application from Ganki Hassan, Esq. in support of the motion paper, granted all the three reliefs sought by the plaintiffs.
In spite of the order of the court, Mr Ezikiel Illiya, Veronica Musa, and Chris Apaji, allegedly broke into the bank in defiance of the court order.
In a warrant of arrest marked FHC/JAL/CS/24/2019 and Charge No. FHC/JAL/M/83/2019, signed by Justice SD Pam and certified by B Bakari, the court ordered the arrest of Iliya Ezekiel, Veronica Musa and Chris Apaji and that they appear in court on January 16, 2020, for contempt of court against the order of the court on December 2, 2019.
Meanwhile, the Taraba State Police Command has temporarily sealed the premises of the Taraba Micro Finance Bank Limited.
The Command’s spokesman, DSP David Misal, confirming the development to our correspondent, said that the action of the Command was in accordance with an executive order given to it by the state government to forestall a possible breakdown of law and order on the property.