The court gave Mr Emefiele until 25 January to appear to explain the circumstances surrounding a $35 million Paris Club judgement debt.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has again threatened to order the arrest of former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, in a case involving a $53 million judgement debt arising from the Paris Club refund.
The judge, Inyang Ekwo, on Tuesday, gave Mr Emefiele until 25 January to appear to explain the circumstances surrounding the judgement debt.
Mr Ekwo had earlier in July threatened to order the former CBN governor's arrest due to his repeated absence from proceedings.
Mr Emefiele's absence from court, resulting from his arrest and detention since June, has stalled progress in the case.
The former CBN was first arrested by the State Security Service (SSS) a day after President Bola Tinubu suspended him from office in June.
The agency kept him in custody till late October, when it transferred him to the Economic and FInancial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to continue the investigations of undisclosed corruption allegations against him.
While Mr Emefiele remained in custody, Mr Ekwo continued to demand his appearance in court and issued an arrest warrant against him in July.
Unrelenting in his quest to ensure Mr Emefiele appeared in court for the case, the judge, on Tuesday, gave Mr Emefiele another opportunity to appear in court in person.
He reiterated that Mr Emefiele risked an arrest warrant being issued against him should he continue to stay away from the proceedings.
The judge stopped short of issuing the arrest warrant against the detained former CBN chief on Tuesday, following a plea by the lawyer representing him and the bank, Audu Anuga, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), that all efforts to ensure that his appearance in person on the order of the court were unsuccessful as he was still in custody.
Lawyer's plea
Mr Anuga informed the court that an affidavit to show cause on why an arrest warrant should not be issued against Mr Emefiele was filed on 30 October.
The judgement creditor's lawyer, I.A. Nnana, confirmed his team was served with the affidavit at about the close of work on Monday, adding that his team needed to file a formal response to it.
The judge cautioned Mr Anuga against late filing of processes.
The senior lawyer, however, explained that all efforts were made until Friday (27 October) to ensure that Mr Emefiele was released on the order of the court to enable him to attend proceedings, but that the order was not complied with, which necessitated the filing of the affidavit.
Mr Anuga, however, told the court that since parties had been exploring settlement before and the CBN governor had been appointed, they should be allowed to continue exploring the settlement option.
'Detention not excuse for contempt'
But Mr Ekwo insisted that Mr Emefiele must appear at the next hearing, saying his detention was not an excuse for contemptuous conduct.
"As for the 4th respondent (Emefiele), I have always said, contempt proceedings follow a person whether the person Is still there or not.
"In this case, I have given this particular person so much liberty, so much leniency and the situation does not seem to change.
"I will adjourn the matter because the other side says they want to react to the process so there is not much talk.
"Order of court must be complied with, and even if no one complies with the order of the court, the court must comply with its order.
"I will give you sufficient time," he said.
The judge then adjourned the matter until 25 January for Mr Emefiele to show cause why an arrest warrant should not be issued against him.
The case
The suit is one in a flurry of legal actions associated with the federal government's refund to states and local governments the amounts of funds said to have been over-deducted from their accounts to offset Paris Club and London between 1995 and 2002.
Linas International Ltd and its promoter, Ned Nwoko, had initiated the first major suit, which culminated in a court judgement awarding them huge amounts of money for their roles in helping states and local government areas to discover the excessive deductions from their accounts.
Since then, countless entities, lawyers, and other professionals have surfaced, claiming to have provided one form of consultancy services or the other to recover the money for the states and local governments.
Mr Agi, through his suit, seeks enforcement of a judgement that he obtained against Linas International Ltd for his role in helping the firm secure the recovery of the funds.
NAN reports that Mr Agi's suit stemmed from an alleged $70 million judgement against Linas International Ltd for his role in the Paris Club refund.
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Mr Emefiele was said to have only released $17 million, leaving an unpaid balance of $53 million.
The court had, on 23 January 2020, ruled that Mr Emefiele must appear "to be examined on oath, since the date of the said garnishee order absolute, to pay the balance of 53 million dollars now due and payable under the said garnishee order absolute and also show cause why you should not be committed to prison for default in payment of the said sum".
In October 2022, Mr Agi, through his counsel, Isaac Ekpa and Chinonso Obasi, filed another application against Linas International, the Minister of Finance and the CBN.
He sought an order directing the Inspector-General of Police to arrest Mr Emefiele and bring him to court alongside his lawyers, Damian Dodo, Audu Anuga, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria, and Ginika Ezeoke, Jessica Iyoke, Abdullahi Afolayan, and Olayemi Afolayan.
NAN reports that Mr Ekwo had, on 20 October 2022, ordered the then CBN governor to appear in court on 18 January over his alleged refusal to obey the order of the court for the payment of the judgment debt in favour of a legal practitioner, Joe Agi, a SAN.
