Court gives Zenith Bank 3 Days To Pay Lawyer N10.5m From PDP'S Account

Court Gives Zenith Bank 3 Days To Pay Lawyer N10.5m From PDP'S Account

Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Monday issued a garnishee order compelling Zenith Bank plc to pay the judgment sum of N10.5 from the account of the People ’s Democratic Party (PDP) to a Lagos based lawyer, Debo Adeleke within three days.

The judge gave the directive followed the refusal of PDP to obey a judgment of the court to pay the lawyer the sum for breached of contract.

Adeleke had sued both the national headquarters and Lagos State branch of the PDP over their failure to pay him his outstanding legal fees after he had made
over 180 representations in court for the party in its election petition matters.

The judge had on November 12, 2014, after hearing the suit which PDP failed to defend, ordered the Lagos State chapter of the PDP to pay N10.5 million as professional fees and other N50,000 as the cost of filling the suit 

However, after the judgment the party suddenly appear before the court urging it to set aside the judgment, insisted that the order was against the account of the 2nd defendant (Lagos PDP) and not account of the 1st defendant (the national PDP).

Opposing the application, claimant counsel, Onyegbena Thankgod argued that the summary judgment gave his client the right to recover his money from the Lagos PDP's account from anywhere within the country.

Thankgod further stated that officials of Zenith Bank has confirmed to him that PDP's account with them has more than enough funds to satisfy the judgment sum and urged the court to dismiss PDP's application seeking to set aside the judgment

But in her ruling on that applications seeking a garnishee order abd the one seekingto set aside her earlier judgment, Justice Ipaye ordered Zenith Bank Plc to pay the lawyer from the PDP’s account domicile with the bank. 

The court also ordered the bank to issued a N10.5 million cheque to Adeleke from the PDP account within the next three days.

The judge expressed regret over the development, stating that it is very unfortunate that a lawyer would have to drag his client to court for payment after rendering legal services to the client .

Adeleke had contended that he handled seven cases for the PDP before the Lagos State Local Government Elections Petitions Tribunal between November 2011 and August 2012 , but the party only paid him N1 . 45 million out of the N12 million agreed for handling the cases.