A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, fixed July 17, for judgement in the suit by a metering company, Ziklagsis Network Ltd against the Federal Government.
Justice James Omotosho fixed the date for judgment after listening to parties in the matter adopt their processes
Ziklagsis, in the suit FHC/ABJ/CS/576/2024, prayed the court for an order of court restraining the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Power, and four others from recovering the N39.1billion mass metering contract sum.
Specifically, Ziklagsis had sued the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Power, the Minister of Power, the Debt Management Office, Providus Bank Ltd, and De-Haryor Global Services Ltd, for allegedly interfering in the project mass metering project.
Ziklagsis told the court that the Ministry and the Federal Government had no powers to “tamper, confiscate, seize, withhold, divert, convert and appropriate the sum of N39,171,985,233.95 granted it for the supply or provision of electric meters in Nigeria.
The company said the development was based on Articles 3, 4,5,6,10, and 18(i),(ii),(iii), 24 and 29(ii) of the Judgement Compromise Agreement it entered with the Federal Ministry of Power on August 28, 2017.
Counsel to Ziklagsis, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), told the court that it was against the provisions of sections 28 and 169 of the Evidence Act, 2011 for parties that agreed on the compromise judgement delivered by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court to seek to vary the said judgement.
He described De-Haryor as a meddlesome interloper.
Objecting, counsel to De-Haryor, Marcus Abu, told the court that they have an application challenging its jurisdiction to entertain the suit, which ought to have been filed under a writ of summons, because of its contentious nature, especially reliefs 7, 8 and 9.
De-Haryor was appointed by the Army to carry on with the smart metering project after Zikglasis allegedly failed to deliver.
Abu contend that Ziklagsis had two draw-down letters, one to cover the Yola Disco and the other to provide N12billion to De-Haryor to execute the metering project.
According to him, while De-Haryor had provided smart metering to almost all the military barracks listed in its contract and received commendations from the Nigerian Army, Ziklagsis failed to deliver on the project, adding that the company also failed to comply with the amortization agreement for the repayment of the N39.1billion loan.
He told the court that the problem of estimated billing still being suffered by most Nigerian electricity consumers can be traced to the company’s failure to deliver on the project.
He prayed the court to dismiss the suit with substantial costs against Zikglasis.
Counsel to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Power, I.J. Iyakwaira, and that of the Debt Management Office, Paul Ogbu, as well as Kehinde Daramola, representing Providus Bank Ltd, all pleaded the court to dismiss Zikglasis’ suit and uphold their counter affidavit.
