N169m debt: Court orders breweries depot in Ondo shut

An Ondo State High Court, sitting in Akure, has ordered the Nigerian Breweries Plc to pay a sum of N169.175m as the haulage fees the company is owing the state government.

The company had approached the court to challenge the demand notices served on it by the Ondo State Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives for the payment of haulage fee last year.

The respondents in the case were the Ondo State Government, the Ondo State Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives and the Ondo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.

The petitioner, in suit no: AK/l45/2020, asked the court to restrain it from paying the haulage fee, saying it was “not liable to pay haulage of goods as part of its object and business and the respondents cannot, therefore, demand the payment of haulage fee from the petitioner and/or enforce the payment of haulage fees purportedly due to the respondent from third parties transport/haulage companies against the petitioner.”

It sought “an order of the court restraining the respondents from further demanding of haulage fees from the petitioner forthwith as well as restraining the respondents from further harassing and intimidating the employees of the petitioner and from the unlawful disruption and closure of the petitioner’s business premises on the ground of non-payment of haulage fee.”

Justice William Akintoroye, in her judgment dismissed the petition filed by the Nigeria Breweries Plc, saying it lacked merit.

The court held that the first respondent (Ondo State Government) has the constitutional right and it is the constitutional duty of Nigerian Breweries Plc to pay haulage fee to the government being the principal to the transport agencies that convey its product.

Justice Akintoroye also granted the cross-petition of the respondent for the recovery of the sum of N169.175m from the petitioner,  being the haulage fee owed by the petitioner for the period of 2017 to 2019.

The court ordered that the Nigerian Breweries Plc’s depot in Akure be sealed pending the settlement of their tax liabilities to the Ondo State Government.