The Supreme Court has upheld the provision of Section 84 of the Sheriff and Civil Process Act (S&CPA), which stipulates that before the initiation of garnishee proceedings to enforce monetary judgement against government or its agencies, the consent of the Attorney General of the Federation must first be obtained.
Meanwhile, the apex court in a split decision of four-to-one declined to examine the constitutionality or otherwise of the said provision, despite the fact that the dissenting judgement declared Section 84 of the S&CPA unconstitutional.
The affirmation of the said Act was made in a judgement in an appeal marked: SC/CV/268/2021, filed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) against the December 4, 2020 judgement of the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal.
Recall that the appellate court had in a judgement delivered on October 10, 2018, affirmed the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which issued a garnishee order absolute against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in settlement of a N50 million judgement debt.
Justice Habeeb Abiru, who delivered the lead majority judgement held that it was wrong for the CBN to have raised, for the first time at the Court of Appeal, the issue of whether or not it was mandatory to first obtain the consent of the AGF before initiating garnishee proceedings.