Families of seven crew members, who got burnt to death in an explosion aboard a vessel, M/T Tutuma on June 20, 2006, in Lagos, and surviving members of the crew, have asked a Federal High Court, Lagos, to commit the owner of the vessel, Prince Akinfemiwa Akinruntan, to prison for selling the scrap of the vessel, despite a court order arresting it.
The plaintiffs also want one Mrs. Igbokwe committed to prison for buying the vessel, which is under arrest by an order of court.
Plaintiffs in the suit brought the committal proceedings, following alleged sale of the vessel scrap for N20 million, despite it (vessel) being under arrest by the order of Justuce Ibrahim Auta.
Those who died in the explosion were Abdulkareem Ismail, John Edareno, Idiodemise Joseph, Friday Udoh, Offe Wilson, Ighofose Moses and Olabimitam Olajide, while others sustained varying degrees of burns.
The court had ordered the arrest and detention of the said vessel, pending the payment into the court by the defendants of N527.7m to cover the plaintiffs’ claims.
According to their counsel, though the defendants have been appearing in court for the matter and are represented by counsel, they had refused to pay the said sum into the court and also failed to provide any bank guarantee to cover the plaintiffs’ case as ordered by the court.
The plaintiffs added that instead, the defendants had been filing different frivolous applications, while the case was pending and that in defiance of the order of court, they (defendants) sold the vessel to force a fait accompli on the court.
The defendants, in their statement of defence, denied any wrong doing, insisting that they had paid compensation to families of those who died in the explosion.
The plaintiffs also want one Mrs. Igbokwe committed to prison for buying the vessel, which is under arrest by an order of court.
Plaintiffs in the suit brought the committal proceedings, following alleged sale of the vessel scrap for N20 million, despite it (vessel) being under arrest by the order of Justuce Ibrahim Auta.
Those who died in the explosion were Abdulkareem Ismail, John Edareno, Idiodemise Joseph, Friday Udoh, Offe Wilson, Ighofose Moses and Olabimitam Olajide, while others sustained varying degrees of burns.
The court had ordered the arrest and detention of the said vessel, pending the payment into the court by the defendants of N527.7m to cover the plaintiffs’ claims.
According to their counsel, though the defendants have been appearing in court for the matter and are represented by counsel, they had refused to pay the said sum into the court and also failed to provide any bank guarantee to cover the plaintiffs’ case as ordered by the court.
The plaintiffs added that instead, the defendants had been filing different frivolous applications, while the case was pending and that in defiance of the order of court, they (defendants) sold the vessel to force a fait accompli on the court.
The defendants, in their statement of defence, denied any wrong doing, insisting that they had paid compensation to families of those who died in the explosion.
No comments:
Post a Comment