A High Court sitting in Abuja, has vacated the exparte order it granted that frozen all accounts of the Abia State Government.
It will be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Apo, Abuja, had ordered the freezing of all the monies of Abia state government domiciles in about 27 commercial banks.
Reacting to the order, the Abia state government said Abia State it has commenced the payment of current salaries to civil servants in the State, despite the order.
But earlier on Thursday, Justice Bello Kawu, ordered that the initial order be vacated after listening to arguments by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Abia State, Uche Ihediwa, SAN.
The Abia legal team had filed two applications before the Court.
First was an application urging the Court to vacate the order because it was made pursuant to a defective affidavit.
The affidavit in support of the ex parte application was purportedly sworn to at the Federal High Court Registry and used to file a matter at the FCT High Court.
This particular issue makes the entire process look shady and funny.
In law, that is a fundamental defect and the Court agreed that such defect was of such a nature that it affected the entire proceedings. They didn’t also obtain the leave of the Court to use the affidavit.
Of course, the life span of an ex parte order in law is 7 days.
The Court also agreed with the Learned Attorney General that it was in the interest of Justice, Public Order and Peace that the order be vacated.
The Court then vacated the order and adjourned to 28th April, 2023 to hear the arguments of the Attorney General of Abia State on his second application which is challenging the jurisdiction of the Court to even entertain the matter in the first place.