Okocha In Trouble Over N887, 000 Judgment Debt

MICHAEL AKINOLA

A business Mogul, Peter Eloka Okocha, may have landed in trouble over his inability to pay judgement debt of N887, 000, which has now accrued to millions of Naira due to the interest attached to the debt by Courts in Lagos.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that a generator repair and serviceman, Abraham Imuse, took Okocha and his company known as Michelle Nigeria Limited, to Court after he had offered services of maintaining their generators since 2017 and Okocha refused to pay after several demands.

Worried after failed attempts to recover his money, Imuse took the case to the Lagos Magistrates’ Court sitting in Ogba in order to recover his money.The Presiding Magistrate, O.A. Akokhia, after hearing the proceedings on December 20, 2018, ordered Okocha and his company to pay Imuse the sum of N887,000 and interest of 10 per cent per month from February 1, 2017 till total liquidation of the debt.

Not satisfied with the judgment, Okocha filed an appeal on February 12, 2019 at the High Court of Lagos sitting in Ikeja, as well as a stay-of-execution order of the judgment of the Magistrates’ Court.
The judge, Justice Y.R. Pinheiro, on November 12, 2019 dismissed Okocha’s appeal for want of diligent prosecution and ordered Okocha to pay N50,000 to Imuse.

P.M.EXPRESS gathered that Okocha was unable to settle the matter despite the facts that he has many companies flouting in Nigeria.He was able to raise N200,000 which he had paid to Imuse and people wondered if Okocha was totally down financially to the extent that he was not able to raise the amount.

Imuse has appealed to the government and the law enforcement agencies to help in recovering the sum of N887,000 from the Chairman of Michelle Nigeria Limited, Mr. Peter Eloka Okocha, after Courts’ verdicts.
He said in spite of the Magistrate and High Court’s judgments ordering Okocha and his firm to pay the sum, the Delta State-born Okocha had repeatedly refused to pay the debt, which has accrued to millions of Naira through interest as ordered by the Court.
As at the time of filing this report, Okocha could not be reached as his known phone number was switched off. It would have been an opportunity to know if actually he was broke as rumoured or his companies facing economic challenges.