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Tag: Emeka Etiaba

  • Okorocha to court: retrieve my certificate of return from INEC

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue him with a certificate of return as the Senator- elect for Imo West Senatorial District.

    Okorocha was announced winner of the February 23 senatorial election as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Imo West senatorial district.

    The Returning Officer for the election, Prof Francis Ibeawuchi, declared Okorocha as the winner of the poll, having polled 97,762 votes ahead of his closest rival, Jones Onyereri of the People’s Democratic Party, who was said to have scored 68,117 votes.

    INEC however declined to issue Okorocha with a certificate of return on the grounds that the results were announced by its official under duress.

    In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/296/2019, filed for Okorocha by his lawyer, Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), the plaintiff wants the court grant an order compelling the INEC to issue him a certificate of return as the validly elected Senator for Imo West Senatorial District.

    READ ALSO: ‘Issue Okorocha his Certificate of Return’

    Okorocha, in the suit with INEC as sole defendant, argued that, having been declared winner of the election, INEC has no power to withhold his Certificate of return.

    When the case came up on Wednesday, the court included Onyeriri and that the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the election, Senator Osita Izunaso as the second and third defendants in the suit.

    While Nwafor Orizu appeared for Senator Izunaso, Emeka Etiaba (SAN) announced appearance for Onyeriri. Mrs. Wendy Kuku represented INEC.

    In view of the inclusion of Onyeriri and Izunaso as parties to the suit, Justice Taiwo Taiwo directed the plaintiff to amend the originating processes to reflect the new parties.

    Justice Taiwo equally directed the defendants to file and serve their processes within 10 days, while lawyer to the plaintiff file and serve his response within three days.

    The judge then adjourned to April 5 for the hearing of all pending applications and the substantive suit.

  • Supreme Court rejects PDP’s appeal on Ogun crisis

    ….Strikes out appeals against Dayo’s EXCO

     

    The Supreme Court on Monday declined jurisdiction over two appeals by the national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) against the Senator Buruji Kashamu backed leadership of the party in Ogun State.

    The appeals marked: SC/968/2018 (PDP v. Eng Adebayo Dayo & 4 others) and SC/1203/2018 (PDP v. Pegba Otemolu and 3 others, were struck out by a five-man panel of the court led by Musa Datijo Muhammad.

    The court said the appeals, being pre-election related were incompetent because they were not filed within the 14 days allowed under Section 285(9) of the Constitution, others referred to as the 4th Alteration Act.

    Justice Muhammad said the court no longer possessed the necessary jurisdiction to hear the appeal because it has become statute barred, lifeless and worthless, having been caught by the 4th Alteration to the 1999 Constitution.

    PDP in the appeal had challenged the judgment of Justice Buba Ibrahim of the Federal High Court and upheld by the Court of Appeal which conferred recognition on the Dayo Adebayo led Executive Committee of the party in Ogun State as the authentic leadership.

    Read Also; Supreme Court decides Rivers APC’s fate Tuesday

    At the resumed hearing in the first appeal, the court asked the appellant’s lawyer Emeka Etiaba (SAN) whether the case was a pre-election matter to which he answered in the negative.

    He said the appeal was about the leadership of the PDP in Ogun State and was not election related.

    Lawyer to the respondents, Alex Izinyon (SAN) insisted that it was a pre-election matter because it relates to the candidate nomination for the next general election.

    Izinyon drew the court’s attention to ground 8 of the application filed on December 14, 2018 by the appellant for accelerated hearing of the appeal, where the appellant said the subject of the matter is to determine who are the rightful candidates of the appellant in Ogun State.

    He also referred to paragraphs 11, 12 and 13 of the affidavit supporting the application where the appellant also said that the matter is about the determination of which of the two set of candidates that emanated from the two executive of the party should Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should accept.

    He also had informed the court that the appeal has become a mere academic exercise because it has been caught by the 4th Alteration Act which requires the filing of a pre-election suit within 14 days.

    The court agreed with Izinyon and held that the case was a pre-election matter, on which the court no longer has jurisdiction in view of the effect of the 4th Alteration Act.

    Although Etiaba made spirited effort to sway the court to his side with argument that the suit was not a pre-election matter, the Supreme Court refused to accept his argument.

    He eventually agreed with the court position and withdrew the appeal.

    Justice Muhammad, in his ruling agreed with Izinyon that the appeal has become statute barred and lifeless, He consequently struck it out.

    ‎The same fate befell the second appeal when it was called later.

  • Judge withdraws from suit on Ogun PDP crisis

    Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos has withdrawn from adjudicating on a suit involving two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State.
    He recused himself after the defendants accused him of being biased.
    The suit, numbered FHC/L/CS/1581/2018, was filed by Prince Segun Seriki, Chief Tuke Omotara, Hon. Nosiru Isiaka Giwa, Chief Remix Bakare, Apostle Abiodun Sanyaolu, Chief Kola Soriola and Chief Oyede Elijah through their lawyer Ajibola Oluyede.
    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), PDP and its chairman Prince Uche Secondus, Senator Ibrahim Tsauri, Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, Sikirulai Ogundele, Bode Bankole, Waliu Oladipupo and Tunde Alekuwodo are the defendants.
    The plaintiffs, in their originating summons, prayed for an order replacing Akinwonmi with Seriki as the party’s Deputy National Chairman (South).
    They urged the court to compel PDP national leadership to recognise Chief Adebayo Dayo-led faction as the authentic Executive Committee in Ogun State.
    But, the defendants, in their preliminary objection filed by through their lawyers led by Emeka Etiaba (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the suit for being incompetent and an abuse of court processes.
    Defence counsel asked Justice Aneke to withdraw from the suit for allegedly showing bias.

    Read Also: Ondo Primaries: Protests persist in APC, PDP

    But, Oluyede urged the judge to not to withdraw from the case, saying: “I ask the court to discountenance the application particularly by Etiaba asking my Lord to recuse himself of this matter.”
    Ruling, Justice Aneke recused himself since, according to him, the defendants no longer had confidence in him.
    “The case file shall be remitted to the Chief Judge for reassignment,” the judge added.
    Before the court sat, Ogun State PDP Youth Leader Comrade Segun Okeowo, led a protest, demanding that the judge withdrew from the case.
    In a petition to the Chief Judge, signed by Comrade Waliu Oladipupo, the defendants said they no longer had confidence in Justice Aneke.
    After citing instances of alleged bias against the judge in the course of proceedings, they urged the CJ to re-assign the case to another judge and to transfer it to Ogun State to save the parties the inconveniences of travel risks and costs.

  • Saraki: Court advises parties to exercise restraints

    Fixes September 6 for hearing

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has asked parties to the suit, seeking to prevent the forceful removal of Bukola Saraki as Senate President, to exercise restraint pending the determination of the suit.

    Justice Nnamdi Dimgba gave the advice on Tuesday after listening to argument by lawyer to the plaintiffs, Emeka Etiaba (SAN), who argued an ex-parte application for, among others, orders restraining the defendants from unlawfully impeaching Saraki.

    Justice Dimgba queried the rationale behind the plaintiffs’ prayers for an orders stopping Saraki’s unlawful removal, wondering how the court could be asked to restrain the defendants from unlawfully removing the Senate President? He said: “If it is unlawful, it is unlawful.”

    Etiaba made effort to justify the prayers as contained in reliefs 1, 2 and 3 of the ex-parte motion. He also informed the court about an alternative prayer if the court was not favourably disposed to granting reliefs 1, 2 and 3.

    He said: “Our alternative prayer is for the court to make preservatory orders in order to protect the res (subject) of the suit pending its determination.

    Ruling, Justice Dimgba said: “In respect of reliefs 1, 2, and 3, which are orders of interim injunction, I believe the proper order to make is an order of accelerated hearing of the suit so that the court can consider and determine the merits of the substantive case definitively and expeditiously

    Read Also: SDP: Court strikes out case against Omisore

    “Even though reliefs 1, 2, and 3 are not granted, needless to say that parties are enjoined to respect the authority of the court and the integrity of the judicial process, and should not take steps that will render nugatory the outcome of this litigation.

    “In the light of the order of accelerated hearing on the merit of the case, the matter is hereby adjourned to the 6th of September 2018 for hearing,” the judge said.

    The plaintiffs – Senators Rabiu Adebayo (Kwara South) andIsa Misau (Bauchi Central) are, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/843/2018 seeking among others, to prevent Saraki’s removal through means other than that provided under Section 50(2)(c ) of the Constitution.

    Section 50(2) provides: “The President or Deputy President of the Senate or the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall vacate his office…. (c)if he is removed from office by a resolution of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of the members of that House.”

    Listed as defendants in the suit are: The Senate, the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawal (Senate Leader), Senator Bala Ibn Nallah (Deputy Senate Leader), Senator Emma Buacha (Deputy Minority Leader), Clerk of the Senate, Deputy Clerk of the Senate, the Attorney General of the Federation, Inspector General of Police and the State Security Service, (SSS).

  • Looters list: Court restrains FG from further mentioning Secondus

    A Rivers High Court in Port Harcourt has restrained the Federal Government from further mentioning Prince Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) in the looters’ list recently published by the government.

    The Chief Judge of Rivers, Justice Adama Iyayi-Lamikanra, who gave the order on Monday, also ordered that the hearing notice be served the respondents by the plaintiff.

    The order followed a motion brought by Secondus seeking an interlocutory injunction against further publication of his name on the list.

    Secondus, in Suit PHC/1013/2018, is suing the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Federal Government and Vintage Press for alleged libel.

    He is asking the court to award him N1.5 billion damages for the alleged libel.

    He said listing him as a looter who collected N200 million on Feb. 19, 2015 from the Office of the National Security Adviser was libellous.

    The PDP chairman’s counsel, Mr Emeka Etiaba (SAN), said that the judge could hear the suit because his client was defamed by the publication.

    The respondents were not present in court and the judge adjourned the matter until April 28.

    NAN

  • Court doubts Metuh ’s claim of ill health

    The Federal High Court, Abuja, has expressed doubts as to whether the claim of ill health by Olisah Metuh, the embattled former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ), is true.

    The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, said on Thursday while delivering a ruling on an application seeking the release of Metuh’s international passport to enable him travel abroad for medical treatment.

    According to the judge, “I am wondering, if the defendant is really sick as he claims, why did he not appeal the two earlier decisions of the court that refused to release his international passport.

    “I doubt that he is really ill as he wants the court to believe, if he is, he should have appealed the decisions of the court at the Court of Appeal.”

    The judge wondered why Metuh appealed decisions of the trial court that had nothing to do with his health but refused to appeal those that dealt directly with his health.

    Abang held that it seemed there was a hidden agenda by Metuh to present the court as inhuman by filing the same application before the trial court a third time rather than going on appeal.

    He said that he agreed with the arguments of the prosecution that filing the application for a third time was an unpardonable and reckless abuse of judicial processes.

    The judge maintained that the defendants ought to know that where a trial court decided a matter, it could not be brought before it again under any guise.

    He further said that since the prosecution closed its case in 2016, the defendant, rather than defending his case, had taken several steps to frustrate the trial.

    The judge said that he could not sit on appeal over his own judgment having already refused an application for the release of Metuh’s passport twice.

    He added that contrary to the claim by Metuh’s counsel, Mr Onyeachi Ikpeazu, (SAN), there were no new facts in the current application as the facts in it were the same as those in the last two applications.

    “The issues raised in this application have already been determined in the two previous rulings on the matter; there is nothing new in this application.”

    He held that on account of Metuh’s conduct since the prosecution closed its case, he could not order the release of his passport and that he lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter having decided it before.

    He therefore dismissed the application for lacking in merit and adjourned the matter until April 20 for continuation of trial.

    Metuh on March 14, for the third time, asked the court to release his international passport to enable him travel abroad for medical treatment.

    One of his counsel, Mr Emeka Etiaba (SAN), told the court that his client did not appeal the two previous applications which were refused by the court but added that this was a new and different application.

    Etiaba had told the court that the new application was premised on the grounds that Metuh had lost sensation in his legs adding that this never happened before.

    NAN

  • Medication preventing me from following proceedings, Metuh tells court

    A former National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, on Friday told the Federal High Court in Abuja that a medication he was taking was preventing him from following court proceedings.

    Metuh is standing trial for allegedly receiving N400 million from the office of the former National Security Adviser, retired Col. Sambo Dasuki.

    Metuh had on March 14, for the third time, asked the court to order the release of his international passport to enable him travel for medical treatment.

    At the resumed trial on Friday, Mr Emeka Etiaba ( SAN ), Counsel to Metuh, told court that due to the sedative influence of the medication Metuh was receiving, he was unable to follow proceedings in court.

    “Yesterday, after the court session, I had a discussion with my client and I realised that even though he was physically present in court, he did not have the presence of mind to appreciate what went on in court.

    “This is because he is on pain killers which cause him to be sleepy or sleep in court otherwise he is under severe pain.

    “Section 266 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ( ACJA ) provides that a defendant has to be present in court all though his trial, not only physically but must also be able to follow through the proceedings in court.”

    Etiaba claimed that Metuh was unable to follow proceedings in court on account of the drugs he was taking without which he would be in pain.

    He prayed the court for an adjournment to enable Metuh to get palliative medication.

    “We ask for a short adjournment to enable him access some palliative medical procedure, pending when the court will rule on his application to travel for medical treatment abroad.

    Etiaba argued that Section 278 had nothing to do with Metuh’s application as Metuh was not of unsound mind or lacked mental capacity.

    According to him, Metuh is in excruciating pain and the medication he is on to relieve the pain makes him sleep in court and unable to follow his trial.

    However, the Prosecuting Counsel, Mr Sylvanus Tahir, objected to the application for an adjournment to enable Metuh to receive palliative medical treatment.

    Referring the court to Section 278 of ACJA, Tahir said that what the law provided in such circumstances was for the court to order a medical investigation to ascertain the mental capacity or soundness of mind of the defendant.

    According to him, where the court is satisfied that the defendant standing trial lacks the mental capacity to do so, the court will order that he be remanded in an asylum and treated while there.

    The Judge, Justice Okon Abang, in his ruling noted that it was at the discretion of the court to grant an adjournment.

    He, however, stated that noting had been placed before the court to enable it exercise its discretion in favour of Metuh.

    “It is my view that there is no material placed by the defendant before the court to enable the court exercise its discretion in his favour and grant the application.

    “There is nothing placed before the court to show that the defendant is in excruciating pain. The defendant is in court and the application for adjournment lacks merit and is refused.

    Abang said that he might deliver ruling on Metuh’s application seeking the release of his international passport to enable him travel abroad for medical treatment on April 20.

    He adjourned the matter until April 19 and April 20.

    NAN

  • Court rules on Dasuki’s application to stay Metuh’s trial Nov. 1

    Court rules on Dasuki’s application to stay Metuh’s trial Nov. 1

    The Federal High Court, Abuja, will on Nov. 1 rule on whether or not to stay proceedings in a matter between the Federal Government and Olisah Metuh, pending the outcome of an appeal on the matter.

    Former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Sambo Dasuki, a party in the matter, asked the court to stay further proceedings pending the determination of his appeal.

    The court would also rule on whether or not to stay execution on a subpoena order issued against Dasuki to compel him to appear in court to testify in the matter.

    Counsel to Dasuki, Mr Ahmed Raji (SAN), told the court on Tuesday that his client, on Oct. 30. filed a motion on notice, praying the court to adjourn further proceedings relating to the subpoena order issued on Dasuki.

    According to Raji, further proceedings should be adjourned pending the determination of an application filed in the Court of Appeal, seeking a stay of execution of the subpoena.

    Raji also informed the court that his client also filed a motion asking for accelerated hearing of the appeal and asked the Court of Appeal to give a date to hear the appeal.

    Similarly, counsel to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr Mike Ozekhome (SAN) informed the court that his client had filed an application asking the court to set aside an order of subpoena issued on him.

    Ozekhome said that the subpoena issued on his client on Oct. 23 was to compel his client to appear in court and give evidence in the ongoing trial of Metuh.

    Ozekhome, however, said that in the alternative, the court should direct Metuh to deposit N1 billion to cover his client’s traveling expenses from his home town, Otueke to Abuja to attend court.

    “Metuh, should in line with Section 241(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) deposit the sum of N1 billion with the court to cover the traveling expenses of my client.

    “This is to take care of him and his security operatives and other logistics involved in ensuring that my client appears before the court as President of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015.”

    He further urged the court to rule on his application before entertaining further processes in the matter as stipulated by relevant authorities.

    Counsel to Metuh, Mr Emeka Etiaba had in his submission, prayed the court to discountenance the submission of the prosecuting counsel, Mr Sylvanus Tahir that Dasuki had refused to appear in court.

    Etiaba noted that the submission of the prosecution should have been accompanied by an affidavit and not a mere oral submission.

    Tahir had earlier told the court that the Department of State Services (DSS) had made concerted efforts to bring Dasuki to court, but the former NSA had refused to appear in court.

    “I am in touch with the Legal Director of the DSS and he just sent me a text message saying, subject is still adamant and blatantly refuses to be brought to court except by force.

    “But after much exchange, he agreed to appear in court on the subsequent adjourned date, so you may wish to take a date sometime this week.”

    Justice Okon Abang in his ruling, said that all the applications filed by the parties would be entertained on Nov. 1.

    According to Abang, “from what is before me, I cannot conclude that the DSS flaunted the orders of the court, the issue of Dasuki will be handled administratively.’’

    He said the court would first rule on the application of Dasuki on whether or not to stay proceedings on the matter.

    He said that should Dasuki’s application succeed, further proceedings in the matter would be adjourned.

    He, however, said that if the application failed, the court would deliver ruling on the application filed by the former president.

    Metuh who is standing trial for receiving N400 million from Dasuki had asked the court to issue a subpoena on Dasuki and Jonathan, compelling them to appear in court to give evidence.

    NAN

  • Secret pain Emeka Etiaba endures

    IF there was one burden that lawyer-turned politician, Emeka Etiaba, had, it was becoming the governor of Anambra State. Twice he made spirited attempts to shake the political establishments of Anambra State and occupy the Awka-based government house; and twice he was defeated.

    The son of Anambra State ex-deputy governor, Virginia Etiaba, we gathered, still eyes the Anambra State government house and he is not resting on his oars to make his dream come true.