Justice Amobeda withdraws from case – TheNigerialawyer

Justice Simon Amobeda of the Calabar division of the Federal
High Court has recused himself in case number FHC/CA/59C/2019,
referring the case file to the administrative Judge of the
division, Justice Sule Shuaibu. Casefile report

Amobeda in his ruling on Wednesday also granted the prayers of
the defendant, Agba Jalingo, a journalist and rights activist who
is facing trial for alleged acts of terrorism, conspiracy and
attempts to bring down the reputation of the Cross River State
government and the Governor, Benedict Ayade for the provision of an
electronic verbatim recording device which will be independent of
the long handwriting of the court.

However, he held that the the facts stated in the affidavits
supporting the motion were “false, unfounded and misguided.”

He said the accusations made therein were “erroneous” and “a
fiction of the imagination of the deponent” as they were not
supported by any material evidence.

According to him, the defense never applied for the record of
proceedings to tender before the Court but rather resorted to
“cheap media blackmail” and inciting the public against the
court.

He held that the annexures to the further affidavit deposed to
by Olumide-Fusika and dated November 19, 2019 were electronic
generated evidence that did not meet the requirements of section 84
subsection 2 of the evidence act 2011 and were therefore expunged
as prayed by the prosecution counsel, Dennis Tarhemba in his
counter affidavit.

Amobeda who also held that “one cannot place something on
nothing and expect it to stand,” averred that it was “regrettable”
that Olumide-Fusika who according to him does not have the record
of proceedings will rely on “media catastrophes and baseless
accusations.”

An online newspaper had published a leaked audio of the judge
who made remarks that have forced the defendant to seek a
reassignment of the case.

He further held that the Court sympathises with the defendant
and dismissed the prayer of the prosecution not to grant the prayer
of the defense as it failed to show evidence how granting the
provision of an electronic verbatim recorder would have affected
the case.

On recusing himself, Justice Amobeda who held that it is the
administrative judge of the division that assigns cases and that
this was assigned to him, said it was only proper, given the
attention accorded the case by the media which according to him, in
comments after the ruling, were untrue, he will refer the case back
to the administrative judge, Justice Shuaibu.

The defendant, according to him, will be remanded at the medium
security custodial center in Calabar where he has spent 77 days so
far after spending 34 days in police custody before his arraignment
on September 25th.

This means that Jalingo’s fate remains unknown until Justice
Shuaibu acts on the case file.

Jalingo who was awarded the Gani Fawehinmi Award for integrity
in absentia on Tuesday in Lagos, wrote an article in July demanding
the whereabouts of the NGN500 million approved and released by the
Cross River State government for the floating of the Cross River
Microfinance bank.

He was initially invited by the Cross River State Police command
in a letter dated August 14, 2019 to answer to a petition bordering
on the article. The interview was slated for August 19. It was,
however rescheduled for August 26 and later September 3rd 2019.

But, he was arrested in a gestapo styled operation at his Lagos
residence on August 22nd after staff of his wife were held hostage
for over four hours.