The Director-General of the National Council of Art and Crafts (NCAC), Olusegun Runsewe, has been jailed for contempt of court.
An FCT High Court earlier today jailed Runsewe after Justice Jude Okeke delivered ruling in a motion seeking to commit him to prison, for disobeying the order of the court made on December 15, 2017.
The motion was drawn from a suit filed by Ummakalif Ltd against the Minister, Federal Capital Territory; Federal Capital Development Authority; the Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture; and the Minister for Culture and Tourism, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants respectively over the sealing of the Arts and Crafts village in Abuja.
It was learnt that Runsewe would kick start the new year by relaxing in jail for disobeying the court’s orders
The motion dated June 21, 2019, was brought pursuant to Order 47 rule 10 sub-rules 1, 2 and 3 of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory Civil Procedure Rules 2018.
Justice Okeke said that committing Runsewe to the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services will serve as a deterrent to others who abuse office and disobey court orders.
The claimant in the motion sought an order of court admitting Mr Runsewe to prison for contempt of the order made on December 15 2017, which had insisted that status quo be maintained.
The former judge who was in charge of the case, Salisu Umar, had on March 6, 2018 lambasted the council.
Mr Salisu said at the time that the council’s action in sealing up the village had shown that it had “no respect for the rule of law” by going against the injunction that status quo be maintained.
Mr Umar was elevated to the bench of the Court of Appeal in 2018 and the case was subsequently transferred to Justice Okeke’s court.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the 2017 audit report recently released by the auditor-general indicted the NCAC and its director-general of financial irregularities in contract awards and payments. According to the report, the financial irregularities were committed in 2015, 2016 and early 2017.
Mr Runsewe has however written the Auditor-General of the Federation over the audit report that indicted his agency.
In the letter dated January 2 to the Auditor-General, Anthony Anyone, Mr Runsewe expressed deep concern at what he regarded as image tarnishing reports making rounds that he was indicted and undergoing an investigation for a multi-million naira scam.
“I would like to draw the attention of the Auditor-General for the Federation to an online publication that claimed that the Director-General of National Council for Arts and Culture is under an investigation and has been indicted in a multi-million naira scam.
“We would normally have ignored such reports but considering the image of the organisation before the general republic,” he said in the letter seen by PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Runsewe in a telephone interview said his concern was not about PREMIUM TIMES report but how people on social media and other blogs twisted the report without context.
In the letter to the auditor-general, Mr Runsewe said the contracts were awarded by his predecessor, as he only assumed office in 2017
“I would like to inform the Auditor-General for the Federation that I was appointed as Director-General of the Council in 2017. The reports, however, focused on 2016 and the early part of 2017 but the writers do not understand the difference between ongoing projects and new projects in Accounting procedure.
PREMIUM TIMES efforts to reach Mr Runsewe over the latest ruling were not successful. He did not answer telephone calls or reply messages
Source; Premium Times.
