A judge in Nigeria has ordered the arrest of three top officials of the U.S.-based drug company Pfizer Inc., saying they failed to honor an order to appear in court over a $2 billion suit the company is facing for a 1996 drug trial, court papers showed.

Judge Shehu Atiku, sitting in the northern city of Kano on Monday, said his ruling Nov. 6 that the officials of the Pfizer subsidiary in Nigeria should appear in court were not heeded at that resumed sitting. The officials to be arrested include the head of Pfizer in Nigeria, Ngozi Edozien and senior officials Lare Baale and Segun Donguro, the court papers said.

The now-controversial trials for the antibiotic Trovan were conducted in Kano on 200 children during a meningitis epidemic in 1996. Nigeria alleges Pfizer conducted the trials illegally, without the full knowledge and consent of the government and the parents, causing the death of 11 children and injury to dozens of others.

A message left with Pfizer headquarters in New York was not immediately returned Tuesday, but Pfizer has always denied any wrongdoing, insisting the drug saved lives.

Nigeria’s Kano state and the federal government have instituted separate civil and criminal cases against Pfizer. The federal authorities demand $7 billion in damages.

Judge Atiku, who is presiding over the civil case in Kano, postponed further hearing to Jan. 29, 2008.