CBN Fined N100,000, As Emefiele Moves To Stop Pension Payment To Former Governor, Three Others

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has filed a stay of execution at the National Industrial Court, to stop the payment of pension arrears to former Taraba governor, Jolly Nyame, and three others.

On July 12, 2019, Justice Sanusi Kado had ordered the payment of N151.1 million to the governor and three judgement creditors; Uba Ahmadu, Abubakar Armayau and Bilkisu Danboyi.

The N151.1 million is the balance of their pension pension arrears which is N196 million for the period between May 2013 to October 2015. The individuals had already received N45 million out of the money, as the judge had directed a monthly payment in 10 instalments.

The instalment payment falls between July 2019 and November 2021. About N16.3 million had been paid as the first instalment before payment stopped.

Godwin Emefiele-led CBN had approached the court to file a stay of execution on May 27, 2022, but on Monday, the apex bank told the court it want to replace the application with two new applications.

The financial regulator’s request received push back from the counsel to the judgement creditors, Edward Erhinure, who demanded for N1 million as cost for their initial counter-affidavit to the previous application CBN wants to replace.

However, CBN was directed by the court to pay N100,000 to Erhinure, as the case was adjourned to October.

Meanwhile, the faceoff between CBN and the governor comes amid revelation that Nigerian government haven’t paid civil service retiree nine months pension. This was revealed by the House of Representatives.