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Tag: refuses

  • Drama, as ambassadorial nominee refuses to recite National Anthem

    There was drama yesterday at the screening of an 82-year-old ambassadorial nominee, Justice Sylvanus Nsofor, by the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs.

    The nominee vehemently refused to recite the National Anthem as requested by the committee.

    Members of the committee were left speechless as Justice Nsofor (rtd) argued with them.

    The name of the 82-year-old nominee was forwarded to the Senate for screening and confirmation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    A member of the committee, Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East), asked Justice Nsofor a couple of questions, which included reciting the National Anthem.

    Apparently exhausted by the argument of the nominee and his seeming determination not to recite the anthem, the committee asked Nsofor to take a bow and go.

    Justice Nsofor, a nominee from Imo State, was born on March 17, 1935 in Oguta, Imo State.

    He was a one-time Judge of the High Court of Nigeria, Justice of the Court of Appeal, and lecturer in Law, Holborn College of Law, London.

    It is not yet clear whether the committee will recommend the confirmation of Justice Nsofor.

    Another ambassadorial nominee Mr. Adeyinka Olatokunbo Asekun, unlike Nsofor, answered all the questions posed to him by members of the committee.

    Asekun’s name was forwarded to the Senate by the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, for confirmation for ambassadorial posting.

    On how Nigeria could strengthen the Naira through its foreign exchange policy,  Asekun advised the Federal Government to embark on rebuilding the country’s export structure in the various countries.

    Asekun, who had a stint as a retail banker, was educated at the Wisconsin University and California State University, both in the United States of America.

    Members of the committee asked the nominee to take a bow and leave.

  • Court refuses to stop SAN’s arraignment

    Court refuses to stop SAN’s arraignment

    The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday refused to grant an application stopping the arraignment of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Rickey Tarfa.

    Justice Mohammed Idris held that he lacks jurisdiction to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from arraigning him.

    The commission charged Tarfa with unlawful obstruction of investigation and perversion of the course of justice before Justice Aishat Opesanwo of the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere.

    No fewer than 34 SANs enlisted to represent Tarfa, but six of them were in court yesterday, namely Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, Dr Joseph Nwobike, Mr Babajide Koku, Mr Abiodun Owonikoko, Mr Adeniyi Adegbonmire and Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu.

    They brought an application praying the court to order the release of Tarfa’s phone and vehicle allegedly seized by EFCC.

    Tarfa also filed a N2.5billion suit against the EFCC on February 9, seeking the enforcement of his fundamental rights.

    Ayorinde urged Justice Idris to make a consequential order that parties should maintain the status quo.

    But EFCC lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo opposed the application, saying such an order would restrain the EFCC from arraigning Tarfa. ”I will urge Your Lordship not to hearken to that prayer. As of today, the applicant before Your Lordship is to be arraigned before your learned brother Honourable Justice Opesanwo of the Lagos State High Court next week Thursday. The defendant has been notified to produce the applicant on that date.

    “If Your Lordship makes an order to maintain the status quo, then the honourable court would be crippling the defendant from arraigning the applicant.”

    He said Ayorinde’s application was designed to frustrate Tarfa’s arraignment.

    Justice Idris held: “I have listened to learned senior counsel in this suit; it is clear from the affidavit evidence before this court that the applicant herein was served with a criminal charge in suit No LD/2417c/16 between FRN v Rickey Tarfa.

    “This court will not, therefore in the circumstances, make any order that will obstruct the free flow of that matter; I have no such jurisdiction. This is on the one hand.

    “On the other hand, while this suit is pending, no party shall take any step that will foist the fait accompli or render nugatory, any judgment the court will give at the conclusion of trial.”

    Tarfa was arrested by EFCC operatives while allegedly attempting to prevent the re-arrest of his clients, Ghanhoue Sourous Nazaire and Zenou Modeste, both Beninoise nationals charged with alleged forgery.

    EFCC said they allegedly conspired amongst themselves on May 28, 2007 to forge Rana Prestige’s ordinary resolution which they claimed was signed by Mrs Rachadatou Abdou, who co-owns the company.

    The commission said they allegedly forged a Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Form 7 dated November 22, 2005, claiming it was also signed by Mrs Abdou.

    They were also accused of uttering of forged document by presenting the Form 7 to CAC as genuine.

    The charge includes conspiracy to commit a felony, forgery and uttering of false document, which violate section 516, 467 and 468 of the Criminal Code, Cap C17, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.

    The accused persons pleaded not guilty.

    Justice Idris adjourned till February 19 to hear the substantive suit.

     

  • Kogi supplementary election: Court refuses to stop INEC

    Kogi supplementary election: Court refuses to stop INEC

    •Dismisses Wada’s, Faleke’s, others’ suits    •Supporters return home dejected

    Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja yesterday declined jurisdiction over the five suits filed in relation to the dispute arising from the inconclusive governorship election in Kogi State.

    The judge, in two judgments he delivered, dismissed the suits by the state governor, Idris Wada and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the running mate to Abubakar Audu,  the deceased governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), James Faleke, and three others, on the ground that his court lacked the jurisdiction to determine the issues raised.

    Justice Kolawole said the issues raised were election related and had crossed the “threshold” of matters on which the court could exercise jurisdiction because the election results in most of the polling units had been declared.

    He added that the suits qualified as a post-election dispute that could only be entertained by the election petition tribunal which would be set up by the President of the Court of Appeal in line with section285(2) of the Constitution.

    The judge said he refrained from looking at the merit of the cases to enable parties re-argued the issues involved at the election petition tribunal.

    By implication, the supplementary election scheduled for the state tomorrow, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is unhindered, because the suits had, among others, sought to restrain INEC from proceeding with the supplementary election.

    The first was on four consolidated suits filed by Wada, Emanuel Daiko, who claimed to have contested the election as a candidate of the People for Democratic Change (PDC); Raphael Igbokwe (a PDP member of the House of Representatives from Imo State) and Stephen Wada Omaye and a Johnson Jacob Usman (who claimed to be an indigene of the state, a registered voter and a lawyer.

    The second judgment was on the suit by Faleke. Wada had, in the main, urged the court to compel INEC to declare him winner of the election, on the ground that he is the only surviving candidate in the election who scored the second highest votes after the deceased candidate of the APC.

    Faleke, on his part, faulted the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the election inconclusive; asked the court to among others compel INEC to declare his joint ticket with the late Abubakar Audu winner of the election and to restrain it (INEC) from proceeding with its planned supplementary election.

    In dismissing the suits, the judge upheld arguments by lawyers to INEC (first defendant) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (second defendant), Adegboyega Awomolo  (SAN) and T. A Gazali, to the effect that the court was without the requisite jurisdiction to determine the cases, which border on the outcome of an election already held.

    It was also their argument that it was within the INEC’s powers to conduct the supplementary election.

    The judge held that all the suits, being similar except in their “styles of presentation”, were rooted in events which had crossed “the threshold mark” of cases which the Federal High Court could accommodate under its jurisdiction specified under section 87(10) of the Electoral Act.

    “By this, the event of the election held on November 21, 2015 was not within the contemplation of the said provision and because substantial results were already released and announced, the electoral process, in my view, has crossed the threshold mark of an event in which only the governorship election tribunal as will be constituted by the President of the Court of Appeal pursuant to section 285(2) of the Constitution can entertain,” Justice Kolawole said.

    He added that since his court lacked the power to grant the prayers sought by the plaintiffs, it would amount to “idle judicial indulgence” for it to go ahead to evoke its interpretative jurisdiction of the law under section 251 (1)(ii) of the Constitution.

    The judge further held that his judgment did not affirm the validity or correctness of INEC’s decision to declare the November 21 election inconclusive and to hold a supplementary election.

    He said issues raised in the suits, having not been decided on its merit, could be re-argued at the election petition tribunal after the conclusion of the election and the winner declared by INEC.

    “The interpretation of the provision of the Constitution cannot be an exercise the court will entertain in vacuum but must relate to a controversy which the provision of the Constitution are to be interpreted are meant to resolve and or determine

    “When I pondered over and over each of the reliefs being sought, even in the broad sense into which they have been compartmentalised, the conclusion which I have reached is not that I have, by any stretch of the construction of any of the provisions of the laws cited by counsel, affirmed the correctness of the decision of the first defendant (INEC) to declare the election held on November 21, 2015 as inconclusive and or to affirm the validity of the supplementary election that is scheduled for December 5, 2015.

    “These are legitimate issues which this court would be entitled to resolve were it that I have jurisdiction to grant the reliefs, perhaps the principal reliefs being sought in all of the four suits which were tagged as consolidated suits on December 3, 2015.

    “To proceed to affirm or otherwise the first defendant’s decision by which the election was declared inconclusive and to hold the supplementary election will be nothing short of exercising jurisdiction which I don’t seem to have. The jurisdiction which this court has exercises is as provided for in section 87 (10) of the Electoral Act supra,” Justice Kolawole said.

    While the court proceedings lasted, supporters of both Wada and Faleke, who bore placards and banners with various messages of support for their preferred candidate, danced and sang right in front of the court’s entrance.

    Some sat close to the entrance, smoking cigarette and drinking alcohol. Men of the Nigeria Police Force, kept watch all through.

    On learning about the court’s pronouncement, the dejected supporters stopped their activities and departed quietly.

  • Court refuses ex-Mint boss’ request for freedom

    Court refuses ex-Mint boss’ request for freedom

    Detained former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPM), Emmanuel Okoyomon, yesterday lost his bid to regain freedom as a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Apo dismissed his application.

    Justice Valentine Ashi, in a ruling, upheld argument by respondents’ lawyer, Muslim Hassan, to the effect that Okoyomon’s application filed after the Court of Appeal ordered his remand in Kuje prison, Abuja pending the determination of his appeal, was misplaced and without merit.

    The judge, who held that his court was without jurisdiction to hear Okoyomon’s application,  agreed with the position canvassed by the Deputy Comptroller in Charge of Medium Security Prison, Kuje  and the Attorney General of the Federation (who are the respondents) that the Federal High Court has exclusive jurisdiction over extradition proceedings.

    Justice Ashi further held that since Okoyomon’s detention at the Kuje prison arose from an extradition proceedings, and on the strength of a judgment by a Federal High Court in Abuja, his fate is tied to the extradition proceedings.

    The judge was of the view that Okoyomon could either turn to the Federal High Court with his fresh application –a writ of habeas corpus – or return to the Court of Appeal to pursue his pending appeal to a logical conclusion.

    He held that he cannot grant Okoyomon’s application since the Court of Appeal was aware of his pending appeal and that the appellate court had already refused his earlier bail application, but ordered his continued detention pending the determination of his appeal.

    “I am unable to find any law empowering me to circumvent the decision of the Court of Appeal. In view of all I have said, I find no merit in this application. It is frivolous,” the judge said and dismissed the application.

    Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja had on May 4 this year, granted Okoyomon’s extradition to the United Kingdom where he has been accused of complicity in the bribery allegation, involving officials of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN NSPM and Securency International Pty of Australia between 2006 and 2008.

    Okoyomon appealed the High Court decision at the Court of Appeal, Abuja. He applied to the court for bail and stay of execution of the decision by Justice Chukwu. But, in its ruling on June 26, the appellate court rejected his (Okoyomon’s) application for bail on the ground that it was unmeritorious.

    The appellate court however granted Okoyomon’s request for stay of execution of the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, directing the Federal Government to proceed with his extradition.

    Rather than pursue his pending appeal, Okoyomon went before the FCT High Court with a fresh suit, challenging his continued detention.

  • Mikel refuses to pick my calls — Keshi

    Mikel refuses to pick my calls — Keshi

    • Coach says Osaze has been in touch

    Super Eagles’ Chief Coach Stephen Keshi has complained of being shunned by the team’s highly influential play-maker Mikel Obi of Chelsea Football Club of England.

    Although the Coach hide the fact that he was not pained by Mikel’s action but it was visible that he would have love to interact with the player since he is an important member of the team.

    Keshi disclosed to NationSport yesterday in his Bolton White Apartment Hotel that he put the call across to the player just to know his state of health when he heard that he was injured. He was however surprised that up until now the player has not deemed it fit to return his calls.

    “When I heard that Mikel (Obi) was injured I tried severally to get him on phone to ask after his health but surprisingly he did not pick the calls. I sent text messages too but up till now that I speak with you he hasn’t called back or sent me text.

    “This is unlike him anyway and it doesn’t mean that I won’t try to call him again. Since he is a member of the team, my duty is to call every member of the team to know their well-being and condition.  I also believe that he will call me since we have the national business to do together”, Keshi told NationSport in Abuja yesterday.

    The former International popularly called The Big Boss, however, confirmed being in touch with Stoke City striker Osaze Odemwingie who had a surgery September last year and just back to the pitch playing for Stoke City.

    “I have been in constant touch with Osaze since he had his surgery and I am happy he is back on the pitch playing again. I spoke with him again three days ago (Tuesday). I have been calling all the members of this team and I can assure you that they are all ready for the task ahead”, Keshi also told NationSport.

  • Nigeria refuses to take heed

    In the history of the world, there must be very few countries that have been frequently and persistently warned about their impending collapse as Nigeria is being warned. At home and abroad, very many persons, including statesmen, intellectuals, journalists, ordinary citizens of Nigeria at home and abroad, etc, some of them people of good will who are interested in Nigeria’s well-being and success, are warning that Nigeria could soon disintegrate.

    For many years, the warnings have been coming in various shapes and sizes. But we can only pick and choose a few here. Almost from the day of independence, some valiant youths of the Ijaw people of the oil-producing Delta territories served notice that they rejected the situation whereby their homeland produced all the oil wealth upon which Nigeria depended, and suffered all the environmental degradation of oil production, but was neglected by Nigeria and left to suffer in poverty. Their protest was treated as an affront to Nigeria and, again and again, they were punished as criminal insurrectionists. As a result, a strong tradition of revolt was bred in the Delta – a tradition that continues today with powerful secessionist strains, even though the current president of Nigeria is a child of the Delta.

    The people of the Western Region were Nigeria’s frontline achievers, and were phenomenally industrious and confident, until 1962 when the controllers of the federal government decided that the Western Region was too self-sufficient and needed to be disrupted and stopped. The plot disrupted the Western Region, initiated the decline of Nigeria, produced stubborn revolts and a very destructive civil war, and led Nigeria onto the path that now seems to lead to possible disintegration and dissolution. But Nigeria has sustained the tradition whereby every controller of the federal government views the South-west as, in various ways, a land of rebellion. The root of it all this is that the Yoruba people are tenacious holders to their traditional cultural values – of freedom and respect of the individual, the servant-hood of governments, the inalienable right of the people to choose their own rulers, the right of each person to hold and practice the religion of their choice, the duty of a community to accept and respectfully include foreigners, etc.

    Yoruba voices are forever warning and urging Nigeria to respect the Yoruba nation’s cultural sensitivities and allow the Yoruba to manage their own affairs according to their own cultural values in the context of Nigeria. And they never forget to add that all other Nigerian nationalities have the same rights – for which reason they persistently urge that Nigeria be structured as a proper federation based sensibly on the nationalities. But Nigeria ignores these entreaties and warnings, tries to subdue the Yoruba by marginalizing them in the policies of, and shares in, the Nigerian federal government and, if possible, reduce them into a poor and helpless nation in Nigeria. More and more, therefore, the Yoruba are being left with little choice other than to wish and seek for a separate country of their own out of Nigeria.

    More than the Yoruba, the Igbo nation has been more able to compromise with the controllers of the Nigeria federal government. Even so, their experiences have been very close to those of the Yoruba in the history of independent Nigeria. Their desires are to develop, like the Yoruba, their homeland, and, with all other Nigerians of all nationalities, to be free, as Nigerian citizens, to reside and prosper in all parts of Nigeria. At some point, their response to the excessive presumptions and pressures of the controllers of the federal government led to an Igbo attempt to separate themselves from Nigeria – resulting in a civil war that generated much destruction and loss of lives in the Igbo homeland. Because the northern political leadership that has controlled the federal government for most of the time since independence seem to be convinced that that civil war has subdued the Igbo, Nigeria is disinclined to pay serious attention to the voices and aspirations of the Igbo nation in the affairs of Nigeria. Like the Yoruba, the Igbo are being left with no respectable option than to seek for a separate country of their own. The dream of Biafra therefore remains a very virile dream for most Igbo people – a very potent warning which Nigeria is ignoring at Nigeria’s peril.

    Warnings that should never have been ignored have also frequently come from Nigerians of note. Until his last days, the veteran Nigerian nationalist, Chief Tony Enahoro, never ceased urging Nigerian leaders and rulers to restructure the Nigerian federation appropriately and thereby terminate Nigeria’s decline. I am looking in particular at one of his last public lectures in which he said “if we desire to create a viable federal structure and warm relationships among our nationalities, we have to design a formula under which we can live equitably together and the formula must provide for the recognition of the existence and corporate integrity of the nationalities”. He added that Nigeria was no longer being kept together by love or desire, but by force and coercion. The Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has repeatedly urged for changes in the way that Nigeria’s affairs are being managed. Once he added, “if nothing happens…I don’t rule out Nigeria breaking up. That is what happens to a failed state”.

    From foreign dignitaries and important international agencies, the warnings are legion. In 2005, an agency of the United States government warned that Nigeria was heading towards breaking up in 15 years. In 2013, a research group for an arm of the U.S. government repeated the same. Journalists from all corners of the world who happen to visit Nigeria are saying the same over and over. Only last week, the World Bank, the highest monitoring agency of the world’s economy, announced that Nigeria is one of the leading contributors to global poverty, and that, as things stand in Nigeria now, Nigeria will still be one of the leading contributors to global poverty in as far in the future as 2030. In any other country, that kind of warning would be sufficient to move the rulers and managers of society to begin to hurry to change a whole lot of things. Not so Nigeria.

    Unhappily, and very unfortunately for Nigeria, the men and women who guide the Nigerian ship of state choose to ignore all the warnings – determined to continue to manage the affairs of their country in their accustomed, destructive, ways. Quite often, indeed, they choose to bristle at the warnings, and to accuse the people doing the warnings as enemies who are trying to destroy the image of Nigeria and even of Africa. It is as if a huge and malevolent force has grabbed Nigeria in its grip and is pushing or pulling Nigeria through an evil whirlwind towards some sort of predetermined cataclysm. For most of us Nigerians, there is almost nothing more to do than to surrender to the inevitable – and wait in trepidation. In the 1950s, a song in a popular movie had the words “Que sera sera – what will be will be.” What will be will be!

     

  • Cement: Judge refuses to restrain SON

    Cement: Judge refuses to restrain SON

    Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja yesterday refused the prayer of Lafarge WAPCO to restrain the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) from taking any punitive actions against it over its inability to comply with the new cement standard announced by SON.

    Lafarge’s counsel, Prof Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), had while arguing the ex-parte application filed on May 28 this year, urged the court to restrain the defendants from enforcing the new cement standard.

    Osipitan said the defendants lacked the powers to force his client to manufacture according to the new standard because due process was not followed while introducing it. He argued that it was wrong for the defendants to compel his client to adopt the new standard when the license it was granted for the manufacture of its current grade of cement – All Purpose 32.5 cement – will expire by August 2016.

    He said: “There was no notice from SON to vary standard. All we had was a letter written on behalf of the Director-General (of SON) that they had set up a technical committee, and the next thing we heard was an advertisement.

    “The Larfarge WAPCO cement had been in use for 50 years. We still have till 2016, two years and two months, to continue to produce what we have been licensed to produce.”

  • Monarch’s rape case: Judge refuses to give judgment date

    A judge of an Osun State High Court, Justice Oyejide Falola, yesterday refused to announce the date of the judgment in the rape case involving a female National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member and the Alowa of Ilowa-Ijesha in Obokun Local Government Area, Oba Adebukola Alli.

    The judge said he would not announce the date because almost a day to the earlier judgment, the media was awash with stories and people called his line and disturbed him.

    He went on: “Therefore, this case is adjourned indefinitely for judgment and the date is to be communicated to the parties through hearing notice.”

    Justice Falola did not deliver ruling at the last adjourned date, following the twist introduced by the monarch through his counsel, Mr. Taofeeq Tewogbade, who applied for extension of time for judgment to allow further defence in the case.

    However, Mr. M. O. Adedokun, a Senior State Counsel from the Ministry of Justice, who represented the Director of Public Prosecution, insisted that the court should deliver its judgment on the matter, stressing that the case had gone through a series of adjournments.

    He opposed the defence counsel’s application, saying “the attitude of the defence counsel is an attempt to frustrate the judgment”.

    Adedokun urged the court to dismiss the application in the interest of justice and fairness.

    When the case came up yesterday for adoption of address and counter address by the prosecution, Tewogbade told the court that among the new issues raised in his address is that the prosecution had agreed that there was a sexual relationship between his client and the victim, stressing that the court should consider it in favour of the monarch when delivering judgment.

    But the prosecution, led by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in Osun State, Mr. Dapo Adeniji, said the court should discountenance the defence’s position, adding that “the fact that they (Alli and Hellen) had good relationship in the past, which allowed for sexual act, would not suffice for another sexual relationship that occurred when the relationship became sour.”

    Adeniji, however, urged the court to refuse the monarch’s argument, stressing that “we finally submit that the defence’s fresh reply on point of law is unwarranted, unjustifiable, irrelevant and of no significance as far as the case is concerned.”

  • Judge refuses Okah’s application on irregularity of trial

    Judge refuses Okah’s application on irregularity of trial

    Justice Neels Claaseen of the South Gauteng High Court, in Johannesburg on Wednesday, refused to grant the application filed by Henry Okah to declare that proceedings at his ongoing trial were irregular.

    Claaseen, while ruling on the three grounds of the application, said it was absurd and frivolous.

    On March 18, the defence counsel urged the court to declare the trial as irregular on three grounds.

    “Three grounds have been raised for the purpose of the irregularity. The first ground is on the unlawful presence of an official of the State Security Service (SSS), Mr Cliford Osagie, who is an investigative officer in the 2010 Abuja car bombing.

    “That his presence intimidates the witnesses. In the affidavit by Mr Osagie, he says he is a legal official with the SSS and that he knew the accused since 2007 when he was part of the Federal Government delegation to Angola to seek for the release of the accused who was arrested in Angola.

    “It is common knowledge that he was involved in investigating and prosecution of the accused and the other conspirators.

    “The accused having known Mr Osagie as an official of the SSS since 2007 and failed to mention it to his lawyer is a failure that cannot be laid at the feet of the judge.

    However, the judge said the presence of Mr Osagie seating by the side of the prosecutor was regular, adding that the ground of the first irregularity cannot succeed.

    Claaseen said the second ground of the application which said the accused was not warned of his right in term of International Criminal Cooperation Treaty was frivolous.

    “The accused was arrested in South Africa on Oct. 2, 2010, and at the time of his arrest, he had accepted South African residence, though he did not accept the citizenship of South Africa.

    So he is a citizen of Nigeria.

    “The evidence on record was that he was persona non-grata in Nigeria. He was arrested in South Africa and Nigeria still have death penalty in place for the offence the accused was arrested for. South Africa does not have death penalty in its justice system. So, the accused cannot be extradited to Nigeria,’’ Claaseen said.

    He said no injustice had been done to the accused on his right in term of the international criminal cooperation treaty which South Africa and Nigeria were signatories.

    Claaseen said: “The third application was the most absurd to me because I have bent more than backward to assist the accused to have his witnesses.

    “The accused indicated that he did not need the two other witnesses to testify. More so, if the accused had wanted the witnesses who were in Kuje Prison to come to South Africa and give evidence, his lawyer should have applied for their release from prison,’’ Claaseen said.

    He dismissed all the three applications without cost.

    The submissions on the mitigation of sentence will continue on March 26.

  • Newswatch: Court refuses Ekpu’s, others’ objection to Ibrahim’s suit

    Newswatch: Court refuses Ekpu’s, others’ objection to Ibrahim’s suit

    A Federal High Court in Lagos has dismissed the objection raised by four pioneer directors of Newswatch Communications Limited (NCL), challenging the competence of a suit brought against them by the company’s new Chairman, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim.

    Justice Okon Abang held in a ruling yesterday that the objection by Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and Soji Akinrinade (all defendants) lacked merit. He refused all the grounds raised in their preliminary objection.

    He held that contrary to the argument of the defence counsel, Adekunle Oyesanya (SAN), the suit disclosed “reasonable cause of action” against the defendants.

    Justice Abang held: “I think the plaintiffs have raised questions against the defendants fit for the court to resolve. Serious issues have been raised. Combination of these will give rise to question to be answered by the court.

    “For example the issue raised by the plaintiff that the defendants have resigned their appointments and have been paid their retirement entitlements. I think the plaintiffs have disclosed a reasonable cause of action against the defendants; whether they will succeed will be another issue entirely.”

    The judge further held that the plaintiffs possess the right to file the suit, as against the defendants’ argument that the consent of NCL was not duly obtained before the suit was filed.

    Justice Abang rejected the defendants’ grounds of objection that the right parties, which could be bound by the court’s orders, were not joined as parties.

    He upheld the argument that the suit was competently filed by the plaintiffs. He also held that Ibrahim, as one of the plaintiffs, has sufficient interest to protect by filing the suit.

    According to the judge, the defendants’ argument that the suit was not properly commenced was premature, holding that the defendants should have waited to raise the issue in their final written address.

    Justice Abang fixed March 21 for the hearing of the substantive suit marked: FHC/CS/1054/2012, which has as plaintiffs, Ibrahim, his company – Global Media Mirror Limited and NCL.

    The plaintiffs are praying the court to restrain the defendants from acting on behalf of other shareholders who own the remaining 49 per cent stake.

    They argued that the defendants, with just 6.3 per cent cumulative share holding and having resigned from the company, could no longer act for the company or its other shareholders.

    In the substantive suit, the plaintiffs set six questions for the court’s determination and sought six declarative reliefs and an order.

    The plaintiffs also want the court to among others decide whether the respondents, having resigned from the company on May 5 last year, could continue to act for the company and parade themselves as directors.

    They want the court to decide whether or not the respondents, with just 6.3 per cent equity, could act for the owners of the company’s 49 per cent stake and whether in view of their minority share holding, the respondents could also declare, in law, give notice of trade dispute with the company and its chairman.