British-Nigerian Businessman Wins UK Court Order to Seize $21 Million from Nigeria’s CBN Account
A British-Nigerian businessman, Louis Williams Emovbira, who was abused and defrauded by the State Security Service (SSS) in 1986, has obtained a court order from the United Kingdom to seize $21 million and nearly £20,000 from Nigeria’s central bank account held by JP Morgan in the United States. This was revealed by court documents obtained by Peoples Gazette.
According to the judgment of Justice Mary Clare Moulder, Mr Emovbira has the UK’s legal backing to approach JP Morgan in New York and seize $21,231,960.74 and £19,763.130 from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) account with the American bank.
In a lawsuit filed before the Supreme Court of the State of New York on June 26, 2023, Mr Emovbira argued that he was entitled to the judgment fund from Nigeria’s savings at JP Morgan.
“Plaintiff has obtained (and is entitled to the recognition) of a money judgment in its favour and against the Nigerian government defendant,” his lawyers said.
Mr Emovbira had obtained the judgment from the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice on November 9, 2018, but the money had accrued a nine per cent interest over a period of almost five years since the judgment was given.
Court filings said Mr Emovbira in 1986 guaranteed $6.5 million payable within 90 days for his client, Pearl Konsult Ltd (PKL), to export foodstuff to Nigeria from England after a British lawyer Reuben Gale approached PKL and proposed to pay N30 million in form of bank drafts to be cashed in a Nigerian bank.
But Mr Emovbira’s bank account was frozen as soon as the drafts became ready for encashment. He later discovered that Mr Gale was not a businessman but an operative of the brutal SSS. Mr Gale was acting on behalf of a certain Mr Chukwu, who was reportedly linked to the SSS, filings said.
The court also heard that the British-Nigerian businessman was arrested by the SSS, acting on orders from the CBN, which accused him of conspiring to sell foreign currency without authorisation, in violation of the Exchange Control and Anti-Sabotage Decree 1984.
Mr Emovbira said he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in 1986 but managed to escape in 1989 and fled to London. He stated that all efforts to retrieve his money from the Nigerian government so far have been futile.
Mr Emovbira got a presidential pardon from then-military head of state Ibrahim Babangida on August 23, 1993, and an order approving his compensation for the scammed funds. He said he did not receive the money.
“The government admitted that the funds it promised to repay Dr Williams had been ‘obtained by fraud deception and racketeering influenced scheme of premeditated felony,’” Mr Emovbira quoted a section of his Fidelity Guarantee as saying.
A special judicial review panel under Ernest Shonekan of the Interim National Government (ING) found Mr Emovbira to be innocent of the charge against him and ratified General Babangida’s pardon.
The presidency had written to the CBN directing the payment of stolen funds on two separate occasions, September 14 and 28, 1993, but there was no response from the nation’s apex bank, he said.
CBN’s silence on paying the owed sums caused the legal battles to linger for years until Nigeria returned to civilian rule.
Then-CBN governor Charles Soludo also acknowledged the funds owed Mr Emovbira.
Mr Emovbira also submitted to the court a presidential directive dated July 1, 2009, and signed by Umar Yar’Adua, which asked the CBN to immediately pay the victim to avoid further ceaseless litigations over the matter.
A spokesman for the CBN did not immediately return a request seeking comments about Mr Emovbira’s lawsuit. But the bank had filed a motion requesting the case to be transferred from New York to Nigeria.
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