NIB cited for contempt for paying over $255,000 into court

The National Investment Bank (NIB) has been cited for contempt over some $255,793 they paid into court in a case where the Governor of the Central Bank and two others are before the court for the same offence.

“This is a contumacious behavior designed to interfere with the upcoming decision of the court on its application to set aside the Garnishee Order Absolute, interfere with the administration of justice and overreach the Court to force it to set aside Garnishee order absolute and accept its illegal and void payment into court in a belated fulfillment of the condition for stay of execution,” Eland International in a verdict stated.

The payment according to contempt proceedings filed by Eland International against the NIB Friday said the order that the payment is intended to obey expired November 12, 2016.

The order was made by the court on October 12 as part of conditions of a stay of execution it granted to the NIB.

The NIB and Prestea Sankofa were each supposed to pay half of the 511,000 dollars judgment debt into court as a condition to the stay of execution the former had filed against the garnishee nisi order granted to Eland International attaching the account of the NIB at the Bank of Ghana.

Instead of obeying the order to pay half the amount into court, they filed the same process on two occasions at the court of appeal on the ground that the conditions of the High Court were “onerous”.

Eland International in its latest Contempt process wondered why the NIB was now obeying a Court order that expired after being thrown out by the Court of Appeal.

Eland International has therefore cited the Managing Director and Head of Legal affairs at the NIB, John Kweku Asamoah and Robertson Kpatsa and a private legal practitioner, Bright Okyere Agyekum, for contempt over the $255,000 payment.

According to Eland International, which is represented by Elikplim Agbemava, the payment “is without any basis in law and same would be and is void”.

Eland International bemoans what it says is “the continuous disobedience and disrespect shown the court by the NIB” and alleged that the payment is a “deliberate act that undermines the Garnishee order absolute of the Court”.