The Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue (RSBIR) has initiated a contempt proceeding before the High Court of Rivers State against the MD and 3 other officials of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for unsealing the premises of the NDDC without a court order.
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The Suit No. is OHC23//2019 and the parties are RSBIR vs NDDC, Prof. Nelson Brambaita, Acting Managing Director Chris Amadi (Acting Executtve Director Finance and Administration), Adjogbe Samuel (Acting Executive Director Project) and Kaltungo Moljengo, Director of Legal Services.
Following an application by the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue; RSBIR the High Court of Rivers State has granted the service of Form 49, Order of committal on Professor Nelson Brambaifa, Acting Managing Director; Chris Amadi (Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration; Adjogbe Samuel, acting Executive Director, Project and Kaltunge Moljengo, Director, Legal Service, all of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, by substituted service over alleged disobedience of the order of the court.
According to the affidavit filed by RSBIR, earlier, Form 48, notice of consequence of disobedience of order of the court had been served on the Acting MD and the other 3 officials of NDDC and the events that gave rise to the contempt proceeding are as follows;
On the 17th of April 2019 the court Ordered that NDDC is indebted to RSBIS to the tune of N50b being outstanding tax liability owed the Government of Rivers State by NDDC with respect to PAYE, WHT and other taxes unpaid for the period; 2012 to 2017.
The court also ordered the issuance of a warrant authorising RSBIR to seal any land and or any other property belonging to NDDC in order to recover the said sum of N50b owed by NDDC.
It further ordered NDDC to pay the sum of N20m as cost incidental to the recovery of the amount owed.
On the 23rd of April 2019 RSBIR executed the Order and sealed three property in Port Harcourt belonging to NDDC. On the 24th NDDC had a meeting with RSBIR and after the meeting wrote a letter to RSBIR requesting that their property should be unsealed by RSBIR.
After the said letter meetings were held by NDDC and RSBIR in the course of which NDDC agreed to make payment on account as a condition for unsealing their premises and through their Tax Consultant and acting MD even offered an amount that was accepted by RSBIR, after which they offered to make payment shortly.
Rather make payment on account as agreed NDDC filed a Notice of Appeal at the Court of Appeal on the 26th of April 2019 challenging the decision that it is indebted to RSBIR and on the 30th of April 2019 also filed at the Court of Appeal a motion to stay the execution of the said Order that has been executed since the 23rd of April 2019 and to restrain RSBIR from attempting to seal or sealing the premises of NDDC pending the determination of the Appeal.
On the 6th of May 2019, without an order of court, NDDC unsealed all three premises which were sealed by RSBIR, repossessed them and put lots of armed mobile policemen in front of their premises.
As a result of the unsealing of the premises without an Order of court, Form 48 (Notice of consequence of disobedience to order of court) was served on the Acting MD and the other three officials of NDDC.
Presently, there are three motions filed by the NDDC that are pending at the Court of Appeal and one pending at the High Court with respect to the contempt proceeding and interestingly, in all these applications NDDC has said nothing about the fact that the Order had actually been executed by RSBIR and that it re-opened the premises without a court order.
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Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe Esq., ACiarb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director at the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria.
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