The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja has been asked to declare the APGA Governorship candidate in the forthcoming Governorship Election in Anambra state, Professor Charles Soludo, a bankrupt.
In a suit marked CV/077/2021, the Claimant, Martins Okoye, a Legal Practitioner, accused Soludo of illegally diverting the whooping sum of Seven Billion Dollars (approximately Three Trillion Naira) from the nation’s External Reserve while serving as the Governor of Central Bank. In the Originating Motion on Notice filed by the Claimant through his Counsel, Ramsey Omego, Esq., the Applicant sought for:
A DECLARATION of this Honourable Court that the removal of a whooping sum of Seven Billion United States Dollars (collectively belonging to the People and Government of Nigeria) by the 1st Respondent (as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria) from the External Reserves of Nigeria and sharing same in October, 2006 to 14 Banks (owned by private individuals) and consequently writing same off before leaving office in 2009 is a grave breach of the fundamental right to life, dignity of his human person, right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health of the Applicant.
A DECLARATION of this Honourable Court that the removal of a whooping sum of Seven Billion United States Dollars (collectively belonging to the People and Government of Nigeria) by the 1st Respondent (as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria) from the External Reserves of Nigeria and sharing same in October, 2006 to 14 Banks (owned by private individuals) and consequently writing same off before leaving office in 2009 and depriving both the Federal and State Governments in Nigeria of the needed capacity to fulfill their primary constitutional mandate of security and welfare constitutes a breach of the Applicant’s right to life, right to dignity of human person, right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health.
A DECLARATION of this Honourable Court that the chronic refusal of the 1st Defendant to recover the whooping sum of Seven Billion United States Dollars(collectively belonging to the People and Government of Nigeria) which he shared from Nigeria’s External Reserves to 14 Nigerian Banks in 2006 to manage as Asset Managers but later wrote same off before leaving office in 2009 constitutes a continuous THREAT to Applicant’s rights enshrined in Section 33 and 34 of the amended 1999 Constitution and Sections 4,5,16 and 17 of the African Charter, in that the said refusal continues to deprive both the Federal and State Governments in Nigeria of the needed capacity to fulfill their constitutional mandate of securing the country thereby continuously exposing the Applicant’s right to life, right to dignity of human person, right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health to exceptional peril.
A DECLARARTION of this Honourable that the 1st Respondent, having failed, neglected and or refused to recover the sum of Seven Billion United States Dollars (collectively belonging to the People and Government of Nigeria), which he gave to 14 Nigerian Banks in 2006 from Nigeria’s External Reserves to manage as Assets Manager and consequently writing same off, is indebted to the People and Government of Nigeria to the tune of Seven Billion United States Dollars.
A DECLARATION that the 1st Respondent having not been able to liquidate his indebtedness to the People and Government of Nigeria, since 2009 when he left office as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is a bankrupt and therefore disqualified under the Nigerian Constitution from holding any elective office in Nigeria.
AN ORDER of this Honourable Court compelling the 1st Respondent to return FORTHWITH the sum of Seven Billion United States Dollars to the People and Government of Nigeria through the Treasury Single Account of the Federation and file an affidavit of compliance exhibiting documentary evidence of having remitted same within seven days from the date of delivery of judgment in this suit.
AN ORDER of this Honourable Court disqualifying the 1st Respondent from participating in any election in Nigeria organized or conducted by the 2nd Respondent unless and until he liquidates his indebtedness to the People and Government of Nigeria to the tune of Seven Billion United States Dollars.
AN ORDER barring the 2ndRespondent, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), from accepting the name of the 1stRespondent from any political party in Nigeria as a Candidate for any elective post in any election in Nigeria unless and until he liquidates his indebtedness to the People and Government of Nigeria to the tune of Seven Billion United States Dollars.
In the supporting Affidavit, Counsel averred that “this suit is initiated, in the interest of the public, to enforce the fundamental rights of the Applicant and that of millions of poor, hapless, exploited and disadvantaged Nigerian citizens who are daily being dehumanized by extreme poverty, coarsened by social inequality, battered by financial exclusion, assaulted and asphyxiated by economic anguish, butchered by none-state actors across the country all occasioned and or worsened by the disappearance of Seven Billion United States Dollars from the vault of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s external reserve since the year 2006 through the callous scheming of the 1stRespondent who has sprinkled economic adversity on the Government and people of Nigeria.”
