Judges-wig
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has on Thursday fined a
lawyer, Olugbenga Adeyemi N1 million for filing a frivolous suit
seeking to join his client as a defendant in an election
matter.
Olugbenga Adeyemi had filed a suit on behalf of his client,
Farouk Mustapha, who contested under the platform of New Nigerian
Party asking to be allowed to be joined as fourth defendant to
Usman Abubakar Tuggar’s case.
The court awarded N1million as penalty against Adeyemi and in
favour of the 3 Respondents, and Plaintiff in the suit.
Adeyemi, by the judgment, is to pay 250,000 each to the parties
in the suit.
Justice Ojukwu in her bench ruling in the suit marked
FHC/ABJ/CS/1240/2018, refused to join the application and described
it as “vexatious and frivolous”.
“This application is unmerited, incompetent and dead on
embarkation. For this reason, the Applicant’s application is hereby
refused and dismissed.
“Olugbenga Adeyemi shall pay the cost of Two hundred and fifty
thousand Naria (N250), each to the plaintiff, first, second and
third Defendants totaling into 1 million Naria.”
The substantive matter is a pre-election matter and the
application for Joinder was filled on 12/3/2019 after the General
election has been held. The applicant for joinder in the motion
averred that the APC primary election was inconclusive. The Court
held that the Applicant who is a member of New Nigerian party is a
busy body, a busy bee, and a meddlesome interloper and that the
counsel’s action of filing the application is unethical and
contemptuous of the judicial process.
The court likened the action as a game of chance in the manner
of Bet 9ja.
Police Arrests 1119 Persons During 2019
Elections
Nigerian Police said it has arrested 1,119 suspects who violated
electoral laws during the 2019 general elections in the
country.
The revelation was made during the joint media briefing by
spokespersons of the Armed Forces of Nigeria and the Police on the
just concluded elections held at Defence Headquarters, Abuja.
In a statistics reeled out by the Police Force spokesman, ACP
Frank Mba, he said that in the last Gubernatorial and State Houses
of Assembly elections, about 796 suspects were arrested while 323
suspects were arrested during the Presidential and National Houses
of Assembly.
Mba, while giving a breakdown reveals that Akwa Ibom State leads
with 256 suspects, Imo State with 117 suspects while Kaduna State
has 109 suspects among others.
He said some of the arrested suspects were apprehended by the
sister’s Armed Forces and were transferred to her custody for
onward investigations.
In his remarks, Onyema Nwachuckwu, Acting Director, Defence
Information (DDI) reiterated the synergy between Nigerian Armed
Forces and the Police as part of efforts in ensuring that our
democracy is well protected and defended.
He said the role of Armed Forces is to defend the country from
external forces, protect the territorial integrity, provide aide to
duly constituted civil authority when called upon and has never
worked arbitrarily.
By PRNigeria