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ASP Prince Akhindenor connives with Karu Nasarawa Magistrate Court, slams criminal charges against young girl for refusing to marry him

  • Defendant forced to pay One Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand Naira in Cash for Bail — Lawyer

For refusing to marry him, an Assistant Superintendent of Police based in Abuja Prince Akhindenor has filed charges against a young POS Operator, Miss Gloria Benjamin, at the Chief Magistrate Court “Upper” of Nasarawa State at Ado New Karu Nasarawa State.

In move that appears to be connivance with the Magistrate Court officials, ASP Akhindenor not only filed a direct Criminal Complaint against the young lady for refusing to marry him but accused her of Fraud, cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation.

According to the Court documents obtained by Lawblogng.com, the complaint was filed on the 16th of November 2023 by the Assistant Inspector of Police. In the Complaint, the ASP stated that he lent Miss Benjamin some money in the hope that she will marry him. He also stated that he bought her a piece of furniture and a sewing machine in his attempt to convince her to marry him. The ASP also claimed that Miss Benjamin insulted her when he requested his gifts and money back leaving him no choice but to charge the young girl to court.

Narrating her ordeal to Lawblogng.com in tears, the defendant Miss Gloria Benjamin told Lawblogng.com that she was in her Shop on Thursday 16th of November 2023 near Muhamadu Buhari International Market Nasarawa, when court officials came with a police officer and a lawyer, Barrister Titus Ekpo to arrest her. They informed her that the court has summoned her immediately and she must follow them to court.

According to her, she pleaded with them to allow her call her relations to notify them of her whereabouts but they refused and insisted that she must follow them immediately to court. According to her, when they arrived at the court, they informed her that she is standing trial for crimes she committed against ASP Akhindenor and gave her a copy of the charge.

She tried to explain to them that she did not do anything wrong to the ASP but nobody listened to her. When she requested that they allow her to get a lawyer to help her, they informed her that she can only get a lawyer in the court premises. According to Miss Benjamin, the only Lawyer in court at that time was Barrister Titus Ekpo who was representing the complainant, ASP Akhindenor.

The Registrar of the Court, Mr Ahmed Doma and the Clerk, Mr Ishaku Tanko advised her to beg Barrister Ekpo for help and she did. Barrister Ekpo promised to help her even though he was the one that brought the Charge against her.

According to Miss Benjamin, even though the complainant was not around, the court officials took her to the office of the Magistrate who asked her if she is guilty of the Charges but she answered “not guilty”. The Magistrate told her that he has granted her One million Naira bail but if she cannot meet up with the bail, she will be taken to Keffi Prison.

The traumatized Miss Benjamin revealed that when the court officials brought her out of the Magistrate’s office, the Court Registrar asked her to provide the One million Naira cash for Bail but She informed the Registrar that she has no way of raising such money. The Registrar told her that he will help her if she can bring N750,000 in cash but she could not bring the money.

The Registrar later reduced the money to N500,000 and then to N300,000 and Miss Benjamin couldn’t still provide the money. The court officials informed her that she should prepare for Prison since she is not serious.

According to a female Lawyer, the arrest and trial of Miss Benjamin on the same day the complaint was filed in court is against section 117 of the Nasarawa State Law for the Administration of Criminal Justice 2019 which stipulated that a proper summons containing the exact charges against a Defendant Must be served on the Defendant and two days minimum be given to the Defendant to answer the Charges.

Credits: Lawblogng

16 Days Activism 2023: FIDA calls for synergetic global action to build a safe world for women and girls

  • To eliminate violence against women, grant them unhindered access to good education, good healthcare – Peter Obi

As Nigeria and the rest of the world marks the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence (GBV), the International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA Nigeria has called for synergetic global action to build a safe and more inclusive world for women and girls.

Amina Suzanah Agbaje – Country vice president/ National president 

This is even as the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25th election, Peter Obi proffered solutions on how to end violence against women and girls in Nigerian society.

The LP Presidential flag bearer said the surest way to eliminate violence against women is to grant them unhindered access to good education and the provision of good healthcare.

16 Days of Activism is an annual campaign that runs from the 25th of November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women), to 10th of December (Human Rights Day).

The theme of this year’s campaign is “UNITE! Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls.”

According to the statement signed by the Country Vice President/National President FIDA Nigeria, Amina Suzanah Agbaje, (Mrs.), this call underscores the critical need for state actors to raise awareness about gender-based violence, galvanize advocacy, share knowledge and innovations to end violence against women and girls while also challenging discriminatory attitudes and policies.

The statement reads in full:

The International Federation of Women Lawyers – FIDA Nigeria, lends its voice to the global call to create a world free from violence by joining the international community to observe the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence which is an annual campaign that runs from the 25th of November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women), until the 10th of December (Human Rights Day).

The 16 Days of Activism campaign serves as a powerful rallying cry to individuals and organizations worldwide to address, prevent, and eradicate one of the worlds most persistent violations of human rights, which is violence against women and girls. This campaign gained momentum in 2008 when the United Nations Secretary-General launched the UNITE by 2030 campaign, running parallel to the 16 Days of Activism.

The Campaign theme for 2023, UNITE! Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls, is a profound call for action to end violence against women and girls which has been an endemic and continuous scourge. This call underscores the critical need for state actors to raise awareness about gender-based violence, galvanize advocacy, share knowledge and innovations to end violence against women and girls while also challenging discriminatory attitudes and policies.

This years UNITE campaign theme aligns with the 2024 theme of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.

Likewise, Obi in a series of tweets in his X handle on Saturday to mark the Global International Day for the elimination of Violence against Women had a lot to say.

“As the global community .marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women today, I join my voice with other lovers of peace in our society, to speak out against all forms of gender-based violence, especially against women, in our nation… [T]he gender-based violence against women must not be given a place among us.

“The National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) reports that 1 in 3 Nigerian women have experienced physical violence by age 15 (NDHS 2013). According to a 2019 survey by the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, 30% of Nigerian women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence, while a shocking 68% have encountered emotional, economic, or sexual abuse.”

Obi also noted the political influence of women in our polity saying, “Reports also show that women are critical players in our politics as they contribute significantly to the voting numbers but are often hampered by violence which can only be eliminated by playing by the rules of the law guiding the game.”

“This ugly trend of violence must not be allowed to continue, violence against women can be eliminated by empowering the Nigerian women to take their rightful place in society, and contribute to our collective development as a nation. This, we can do by giving them access to education and healthcare, which are most critical to national development.

“To build the New Nigeria of our dreams, completely abhorrent of violence against women, we must understand that development is not gender-based, and we all, men and women, must unite, in love, to move our nation forward.

Do you want to run?

Richard Akinnola

OPEN LETTER TO FCT MINISTER, CHIEF NYESOM WIKE
Dear Hon minister,
First, a disclosure. You may not know me but we have met on two occasions in the house of our mutual respected Oga, first as a minister of State and second as a Governor, but l doubt if you can recognize me now. I’m one of your admirers and critic.

As a two-time Governor of Rivers state, you did well in terms of infrastructures, for which l often commend you. I however, sometimes disagree with you, particularly what l consider your streaks of high-handedness against those who disagreed with you politically.

I’m writing this letter, with the hope that don would send it to you, after watching your media interview with particular reference to your protégé and successor, Sim Fubara, a guy l have never met. No doubt, he wouldn’t have emerged as Governor without your imprimatur. I don’t have the details of your disagreement and I’m not even interested. What I’m interested in is you to rise above the alleged offence.

Take a deep breath and have an introspective view of your political trajectory since 1999.
*1999-2007: Obio-Akpor LGA Chairman
*2007-2011: Chief of Staff, Rivers
*2011-2015: Education Min. (State)
*2015-2023: Governor, Rivers State
*2023-till date: Minister of FCT
And you are just 55!

I stand to be corrected, nobody from Rivers State has been so politically favoured and blessed by God as you are, not that you are the most politically-savvy politician from the state but it’s just the Grace of God. I plead with you, don’t take such grace for granted.

As Governor of Lagos state in 2010, Governor Babatunde Fashola told me something that has stuck with me till today, regarding power and leadership. There was a three-month old strike by doctors in Lagos over pay increase. I stepped in to mediate between the doctors and State, which by the grace of God, l was able to pull through after extensive negotiations with the doctors and the strike was called off to the relief of millions of Lagosians. In the course of the mediation, Fashola told me that some people asked him to fire all the doctors but he made this profound statement:

“Restraint is a powerful tool in leadership; the fact that you have the power to do something but chose to look the other way.” That statement has stuck with me till date. Why do you think American presidents, despite the temptation to press the nuclear button, when their interests are threatened, rather exercise restraint by refusing to go that route. It is leadership restraint.

Permit me to recall a story which you yourself regaled your audience with at the 70th birthday reception you held in honour of Dr Peter Odili. You said that when you wanted to contest for the Chairmanship of Obi/Akpor local government in 1998, you approached Dr Odili, whom you were meeting for the first time and sought his support. He obliged by giving you his support and according to you, he gave you the first financial support towards your ambition, even when he himself was campaigning to run for the governorship of Rivers State. You became the Chairman and when you wanted to go for a second tenure, some political actors removed your name and according to you, you ran to Dr Odili who was then the governor and he saved your political career by reinstating your name.

Fast forward to when you completed your tenure as the Chairman of the local government, when your erstwhile friend, Rotimi Amaechi who just became the Governor, appointed you his Chief of Staff and that administration commenced a process to humiliate Dr Odili by setting up the Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation Commission where your benefactor, Odili was the target and was put in the witness box.

Later when cracks began to emerge in your relationship with your boss, Amaechi, you ran back to your benefactor, Dr Odili to apologise for how your administration humiliated him. As a large-hearted person, he forgave you and that began a wonderful relationship till date. Why am l making references to these incidents? If Dr Odili could forgive you and took you back, why can’t you also forgive your political offenders, including Fubara, particularly since God has been so good to you?

Anyone who has transversed Ada George road, Port harcourt and seen the humongous, palatial estate you reside in, that takes a substantial part of that road, would know that you are not lacking materially. Coupled with that, you are a minister in the current government and your wonderful wife is a judge. What else does any human being want?

My brother, please calm down and let go of your ego and learn from history. Who would have thought that a whole General Shehu Yar’Adua (rtd) could die like a chicken inside prison; who would have imagined that a whole Bashorun MKO Abiola, the then richest man in Africa could spend five years in detention and die in custody, despite his international connections; who would have imagined that Major Hamza Al-Mustapher, the de facto Head of State during the junta of General Sanni Abacha, a man even Generals genuflected for, would spend 14 years in prison? Please, pause and think. This life is ephemeral. As the book of Ecclesiastes 1 states, life is vanity.

In Oyo state, there used to be the strong man of Ibadan politics, Lamidi Adedibu but his house in Molete, Ibadan is now desolate after his death. Adedibu was law as far as Ibadan politics was concerned. He was feared by all political actors across the nation. Before him, there was Busari Adelakun, otherwise known as “Eruobodo” in Ibadan politics. They have all been consigned to the dustbin of history. Learn from these because whether you like it or not, you would also pass away one day like all mortals.

God has been so good to you. Though I don’t have the details of your feud with Fubara but you claim he is an ingrate but this same “ingrate” took bullets for you as your Accountant-General when the EFCC was investigating your government. If you didn’t have confidence in him, you wouldn’t have put him forward to succeed you. Please, rise above political offences and be a leader. May it not be counted against you that since 1999, your successor would be the first Governor of Rivers state to be impeached. No garland for such feat. It would be a pyrrhic victory and your new political masters in Abuja would even be wary of you. You are new to Tinubu’s school of politics. Don’t get carried away.
May God guide you right.
Richard Akinnola
(Your admirer and critic)

Intimate Affairs: Stop stalking your man

By Funke Egbemode

Nse has become a comic character in her husband’s office. Once she drives in through the gates, the staff, especially the girls, start making faces, calling one another’s attention to the arrival of ‘Madam Godzilla.’

‘Mama is in the building, make some noise…’

‘Who is the current champion?

‘Or current prime suspect.

‘Oga, needs protection.’

‘What Oga needs is sense. He needs to find his wife a serious job.

‘Or get her pregnant every year.’

Of course, the mocking is done in hushed tones, but is it their fault? No. It is Nse whose insecurity has laid bare for office gossip, her husband’s office. She it was who decided her husband’s secretaries were threats to her marriage.

So, she found faults with each secretary, cooked up wild allegations and read meanings into everything each of her husband’s secretary wore, said and how she swung her hips. She cursed them on the phone and caused embarrassing scenes in the office.

Even when her husband bowed to her ‘craze’ and opted for a secretary in her 60s, Nse’s trust issues didn’t really abate. She simply shifted gears.

Now, she has a spy somewhere in the system who I think she pays to inform her when any girl becomes too frequent on the Directors’ floor, or a new beautiful marketer or youth corps member starts rolling her backside into her husband’s office. Then she pretends to be dropping off lunch just to check the new ‘prime suspect’.

Today, everybody thinks Nse is a nuisance and insecure housewife. In her myopic mind, she somehow must have concluded that those demeaning pranks would stop Victor from having a girlfriend or even taking a second and third wife.

How exactly do you stop a man from sowing his oats, wild or mild? How does a wife assume the role of a monitoring spirit to deliver her husband from the spirit of philandering?

The lengths women go to look for things that are not looking for them beats me. As they say on the street: who spying hep? Who monitoring spirit hep?

If you suspect your partner is straying, there are a dozen and one things you can do to bring him back home, and trust me, raising your blood pressure and working towards a wheelchair aren’t on the list. Going to his office or shop to belittle yourself isn’t on the list either.

As I have always insisted, there are a few husband snatchers on this planet. When your man is straying, watch his legs, he’s the one walking towards other women.

He’s the one with roaming eyes and roving hands. He is the one who has left his naturally endowed wife at home to look for artificially installed boobs and buttocks.

Check out the dictionary meaning of straying. Sure, there are women who set out to capture men but most of the time, these dudes are willing captives.

As a lawful owner and holder of the Certificate of Occupancy of your man’s assets and jewels, you reserve the right to keep your thing. But do not, I repeat, do not lose your life or yourself while trying to fend off encroachers.

The other day, a wife who had set ‘private investigators’ on her husband tracked him down to his side chick’s place on a Saturday morning.

Apparently, ‘oga’ did not sleep in his matrimonial bed and Madam in a rage jumped on a bike to have a showdown with her philandering husband and his husband-snatching mistress.

And what a showdown it was! Sisi side chick felt affronted; after all, she was in her house, not on madam’s bed. Wifey felt the thief had to be executed publicly.

Oga was embarrassed by the public display of shame. He took off so fast most of the spectators who trooped out for the early morning entertainment did not get to ‘meet’ the man of the moment. The two women dug it out, giving a good account of themselves in the hall of shame.

Blouses were torn. Bras were exposed. Hair and wigs were pulled and flung. Slippers flew in the air along with unprintable expletives. It was a sad day. Note again: the man at the centre of it all fled the scene.

Fighting physically in public over a man is for me the height of shameless nonsense. No woman, wife or side chick should be caught duelling over one staff of office.

There are other ways to fix that kind of territorial integrity tussles better and more effective than mud-fight. Madam, what if you get totally snookered by a side chick in public instead of you pummelling her to an inch of her life?

What if you break a leg or arm or even your back? And you could die, you know. That other woman and probably three others you didn’t know existed would be at your funeral, wearing designer sunglasses, to pay their last respects. Imagine!

Pray, what do women who check their men’s phones think they will find – American visa waiting to be downloaded or newly minted naira notes waiting to be printed straight out of the phone? If your partner has a password on his phone, he does not want his phone accessed without his permission.

Why do you want to know which number called him or he called most frequently? How does discovering another woman calling him ‘babe’ improve your peace of mind?

What if you discover he sent a million naira to his mother when he told you he can’t afford to pay for the children’s new school uniform? What if he and his friends are planning a getaway weekend with their side chicks on a trip he told you is an intensive business conference?

Spying on your spouse in any form will eventually damage your relationship. Checking your partner’s phone for call and text history, logging onto his email account, stalking him on Facebook and reading meanings to every post and quote will only make you sad.

Setting busybodies on his trail to find out who she’s been talking to and who he has been spending lunch breaks with is a kind of relationship ailment. Face it, you need to get help before you turn the bend and end up a psychological wreck.

Spying can also become some sort of addiction and a fuel for jealousy. You cannot stop as easily as you started. Once you start, you begin to rely more and more intensely on the checking up you do.

You feel unsure, suspicious and full of worries if you have not checked his phone or Facebook page. Your jealousy quotient rises and your fears rule your every waking moment, becoming a crutch that you are constantly leaning on.

Whatever you think he’s hiding on his phone is none of your business. Work on your man, your relationship. Love him. Feed him. Spice up your sex life. Be more dependable. Delete nagging.

Do everything to make his heart, spirit, body and soul return home. Stop treating your man like a suspect, unless your marriage is a crime scene. Stop stalking him or you just might find that thing that is not looking for you.

Funke Egbemode could be reached on : [email protected]

Nigerian judiciary as lost hype of justice

By Farooq Kperogi

The idea that the “judiciary is the last hope of the common man” is a banal, flyblown cliché that is habitually huckstered in Nigerian judicial circles and uncritically repeated in the Nigerian commentariat. But that’s mere hype. There has never been any moment, at least in my lifetime, when the judiciary was the unalterable guardian of justice for common people.

The judiciary has shown occasional flashes of independence and forthrightness, but it has also been routinely instrumentalized to oppress “the common man,” to protect the self-interest of people in power, and to deodorize the moral stench of the gilded and perfumed but inwardly stinky elite class.

The raft of scandalously unjust and predetermined appeal court judgments against the non-APC governors of Kano, Plateau, and Zamfara states bears the testimonies of a compromised and barefacedly mercenary judiciary and of the fact that what is lost isn’t hope but hype.

I am not one of the people for whom justice is said to have been done only when the opposition wins in court. I am politically unaffiliated and see not a smidgeon of ideological distinction among all the major political parties in Nigeria.

In fact, I stood out from the crowd in thinking that the judiciary’s affirmation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory at the polls was justified by evidence and logic. In my September 16, 2023, column titled “PEPT’s Verdict and the Task Before the Supreme Court,” for example, I argued that the legal challenges of PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and LP’s Peter Obi to Tinubu’s win were the weakest I’ve seen in my life.

Even if the judiciary had overturned Tinubu’s victory, neither Atiku nor Obi would have been constitutionally qualified to be declared president because they didn’t win up to 25 percent of votes in 24 states. Atiku won 25 percent or more of votes in 21 states while Obi won in a mere 16 states plus the FCT.

I wrote: “The centerpiece of the electoral petitions against Tinubu’s victory was that Tinubu should be disqualified from running for the last presidential election because of a whole bunch of things they alleged against him, most of which revolved around questions of his irrefutable moral turpitude. Unfortunately, immorality isn’t always illegality.

“The petitions were high on emotions, conjectures, moral posturing, grandstanding, logical absurdities (such as insisting that candidates must win 25 percent of the FCT to win a presidential election thereby making Abuja more important than every part of Nigeria, that Tinubu should be disqualified for a voluntary civil forfeiture of drug money in the US more than three decades ago, that Tinubu should be disqualified because of false and ignorant claims that he didn’t graduate from Chicago State University, or for perjuries he committed more than 20 years ago, etc.) than on legally sound, substantive arguments about the election itself.”

APC and LP minions attacked me for this—and, of course, for my defense of the legitimacy of his Chicago State University degree— and said I was paid by Tinubu with whom I’ve never had any association and whose politics and policies I intensely resent. PDP and LP politicians I used to be on good terms with stopped communicating with me. But I don’t live for anyone’s validation and don’t derive my inspiration from the noise of the shrill majority. I’ve transcended that a long, long time ago. So long as I am telling the truth, I don’t care who hates, loves, condemns, or commends me.

I’ve gone to this length to show that I have no partisan loyalty to any person or group. To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with being a partisan; I just am not one.

When I said the appeal court judgments against non-APC governors seem like premeditated judicial manipulations, I am not saying this from the resources of my emotions—or to get back in the good graces of the anti-Tinubu crowd. No, it’s because the facts point to it.

Take, for instance, the confusion over the contradictory judgment of the court of appeal in the Kano governorship case. It’s evident that the appeal court judges at some point dug deep into their consciences and ruled in favor of justice by vacating the judgment of the lower court that overturned NNPP’s victory. But something later contaminated their consciences, which compelled them to rewrite their judgment.

However, in rewriting their judgment, they neglected to clean up everything they had written. What we see as “contradictions”—or what they call “clerical errors”— are merely surviving remnants of their previously unspoiled consciences. Only someone who doesn’t understand English would call entire meaningful sentences “clerical errors.”

A law dictionary defines a clerical error as “a small mistake made when writing or copying something down, like typing the wrong number or misspelling a word. It’s not a big mistake that affects the outcome of a case. Courts can fix clerical errors even after a judgment has been made. It’s like when you accidentally write the wrong letter in a word and then go back to fix it.”

Quashing a previous judgement and recommending that the appellant be paid 1 million naira can’t be a clerical error. It is exactly what happens when two different judgments are merged into one and the expurgation of some parts of the judgement weren’t done tidily. It’s a classic case of a pre-written judgement gone wrong.

Recall that in an August 29, 2020, column titled “Aso Rock Cabal’s Judicial Cabal on Election Petitions,” I revealed that “there is a judicial cabal at the Court of Appeals of Nigeria that writes judgments for election petition tribunals” and that“The actual writing of the judgments is usually done by a consortium of justices and legal practitioners…. This subversion of justice by a conclave is a low-risk-high-reward undertaking.  Members of the judicial cabal are routinely compensated with promotion and financial reward.”

Similarly, courts are usually guided by the doctrine of judicial precedent, which the Oxford Dictionary of Law defines as “judgement or decision of a Court used as an authority for reaching the same decision in subsequent cases.”

When a court dismissed a previous case as incompetent because it was a preelection matter when it was filed by one party but accepts it as the basis for overturning the votes of hundreds of thousands of citizens when it was filed by another party, you don’t need to be smart to know that something is amiss.

As I once pointed out, precedents may be modified, but they are rarely overturned without a compelling reason, certainly not within a few years after they were established. That is what legal scholars call stare decisis, that is, the doctrine that courts should follow earlier judicial decisions.

Even conscientious APC drumbeaters confess in private that they are manipulating the judiciary to take over Kano, Plateau, and Zamfara as indemnity for the 2027 presidential election. They see the states as high-reward butlow-risk states to grab.

One APC supporter told me my apprehensions about Kano devolving into sanguinary fury as a result of the brazen theft of NNPP’s victory there—which the Supreme Court will give final imprimatur to— didn’t take into account the fact that Kano explodes only when the trigger is religious. I hope he is right because, as a pacifist, I resent violence and the shedding of blood, particularly for political or religious reasons. But there is also such a thing as foolish optimism.

In Plateau and Zamfara, the cast of characters in the gubernatorial contests there all share similar primordial characteristics, so although the events there are being dictated from Abuja, ordinary folks won’t be roused to primeval anger by electoral robbery. That’s the calculation of APC. Again, this strikes me as blind and unrealistic optimism.

More than that, though, justice matters. People’s victories shouldn’t just be arbitrarily stolen through the judiciary because the president is “strategizing” for a second term when the first one has barely taken off.

Variety is the spice of life. Nigeria’s democracy would be unbearably dreary if APC imposes itself on most states of the federation. It is this sort of inordinate power grab that caused PDP to splinter irretrievably—and that ended previous experiments at civilian rule. But the people at the helm of the APC are too inebriated by the temporary political dominance they enjoy to see the big picture.

Kano Guber A’Court Verdict: There must be a cogent explanation and clarification of this quagmire —Olumide Akpata

“The stakes are too dire for the issue to be left in the hands of Registry officials.”

” The lethal combination of a shoddy recruitment process and the impoverishment of Judges and the Judiciary, by the executive arm of Government at both national and sub-national levels is an insidious attempt by the Nigerian political class and their collaborators to “capture” the Judiciary, and this constitutes a clear threat to the Rule of Law in Nigeria”

The immediate past President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Olumide Akpata has called on the President of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem to urgently “provide, for the benefit of Nigerians and, indeed, the world, a hopefully cogent explanation and clarification” for the controversial and confusing judgment of the Kano gubernatorial election tribunal.

Akpata who revealed that as a member of the Interview Committee of the National Judicial Council (NJC), he openly queried “what I considered to be the sub-optimal manner in which potential Justices of the Court of Appeal were being screened by the said Committee and the fact that some of the candidates displayed a confounding lack of knowledge of very basic legal principles” added:

“My position has also been very unfortunately vindicated by recent occurrences in our Judiciary. A case in point being the scandalous and extremely embarrassing report of an apparent discrepancy between the Judgement pronounced in open court and the Certified True Copy obtained from the Court Registry, in the Kano State Gubernatorial Petition Appeal.

“This rather bizarre incident has further accentuated the crisis in the Nigerian Judiciary, which is exacerbated by the many confounding decisions emanating from our Courts that continue to bewilder and befuddle observers of this once revered arm of government.”

He then urged the Appeal Court President “to provide, for the benefit of Nigerians and, indeed, the world, a hopefully cogent explanation and clarification of this quagmire.

“It is the very least My Lord can and should do in the circumstances. It is imperative that His Lordship makes a categorical statement on this matter because the stakes are way too high and the current situation in the Judiciary (and indeed the country) too dire for the issue to be left in the hands of Registry officials.”

Below is the full text of the statement dated 24 November, 2023.

1. While serving as the 30th President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and concurrently as a member of the Interview Committee of the National Judicial Council (NJC), I openly queried what I considered to be the sub-optimal manner in which potential Justices of the Court of Appeal were being screened by the said Committee and the fact that some of the candidates displayed a confounding lack of knowledge of very basic legal principles. Regrettably, the justification given by some members of the Committee in defence of these candidates who were aspiring to be elevated to the Court of Appeal was that these would-be Justices of that Appellate Court would learn on the job.

  1. At the meeting of the National Executive Council of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA-NEC) held in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, on March 18, 2021, I informed members of the NBA of this shocking state of affairs and I also warned of the potentially negative and detrimental consequences of this unfortunate situation. My statement, referred to above, was immediately publicised on social media, with some embellishments, by a lawyer who was present at that meeting, and this report immediately went viral, much to the chagrin of some of the operators of our Judicial system.
  2. For starters, My Lord, Hon. Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), took umbrage at my well-intentioned comments and publicly and very stoutly defended this patently defective recruitment process.
  3. Since the conclusion of my tenure as NBA President in August 2022, I have had cause, at different fora, to revisit and highlight this vexed issue of the sub-optimal recruitment process in the Nigerian Judiciary and what it portends not just for the future of the institution but of the entire nation.
  4. My most recent intervention in this regard was at the Rule of Law Symposium held as part of the Annual Conference of the International Bar Association (IBA) on the 3rd of November, 2023, in Paris, France. At that event, I stated that the lethal combination of a shoddy recruitment process and the impoverishment of Judges and the Judiciary, by the executive arm of Government at both national
    and sub-national levels is an insidious attempt by the Nigerian political class and their collaborators to “capture” the Judiciary, and this constitutes a clear threat to the Rule of Law in Nigeria, a situation that calls for the urgent intervention of the IBA.
  5. Ever since the video recording of my aforementioned contribution to the Symposium surfaced on the internet, I have been, again, roundly criticised by some very defensive Judicial officers and their cohorts for airing what they considered to be internal national issues on the international stage.
  6. It must be said, however, that my position on this issue, as enunciated at the IBA Conference in Paris, has also been supported and endorsed by many well-meaning Nigerians, including senior Legal
    Practitioners and some Judges.
  7. My position has also been very unfortunately vindicated by recent occurrences in our Judiciary. A case in point being the scandalous and extremely embarrassing report of an apparent discrepancy between the Judgement pronounced in open court and the Certified True Copy obtained from the Court Registry, in the Kano State Gubernatorial Petition Appeal. This rather bizarre incident has further accentuated the crisis in the Nigerian Judiciary, which is exacerbated by the many confounding decisions emanating from our Courts that continue to bewilder and befuddle observers of this once revered arm of government.
  8. As expected, the news media and the rumour mills are awash with suggestions that this Judgement may have been “intercepted” on its way to delivery and that this ostensible mix-up was in fact a Freudian slip that occurred in the course of a hastened heist. These suggestions and allegations, even though unsubstantiated, are very quickly gaining traction and taking root in the minds of very many Nigerians and indeed non-Nigerians – a situation that could very quickly imperil the Judiciary in Nigeria and, by extension, our nascent and floundering democracy.
  9. I recently came across news reports from usually reliable media sources, quoting the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Umar Bangari, as having attributed the discrepancy in the said Judgement to a clerical error. Furthermore, he is reported to have requested parties to the Appeal to apply to the Court to correct the purported error pursuant to Order 23 Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal Rules. With the greatest respect, the Chief Registrar’s approach to this matter is most untenable, as it flies in the face of reason and also does not conform with our extant laws on the subject. Whilst, acknowledging the fact of human fallibility and the possibility of mistakes occurring, the fundamental nature of this “error” and the impact it has on such a consequential part of the Judgement, make it extremely difficult to accept, without more, the aforementioned assertion by the Chief Registrar.
  10. It is for this reason that I urgently call on the PCA, My Lord, Hon. Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, as the Head of the Nigerian Court of Appeal to provide, for the benefit of Nigerians and, indeed, the world, a hopefully cogent explanation and clarification of this quagmire. It is the very least My Lord can and should do in the circumstances.
  11. It is imperative that His Lordship makes a categorical statement on this matter because the stakes are way too high and the current situation in the Judiciary (and indeed the country) too dire for the issue to be left in the hands of Registry officials.
  12. OLUMIDE AKPATA 24 November 2023

Mbaise People’s Congress to honour TheNiche MD, Amaechi, NHRC boss, Ojukwu, DCP Ajunwa, 15 others Nov 25

By Jeffrey Agbo

A non-governmental organization, Mbaise People’s Congress (MPC), under the leadership of Ochiagha Carl Azudibia, will on Saturday, November 25 hold its Annual Professionals Get-Together and Distinguished Achievers Award Day.

MPC will use the occasion to honour and present awards to deserving Mbaise sons and daughters at the Welcome Centre Hotels, Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road, Lagos by noon, according to an invitation card made available to TheNiche.

Among this year’s distinguished honourees are Ikechukwu Amaechi, Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of TheNiche newspaper.

Others include Dr. Anthony Okechukwu Ojukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria (NHRC); retired Deputy Commissioner of Police Chioma Ajunwa-Opara, the only woman to compete at both the FIFA Women’s World Cup as a footballer and the Olympics as a track and field athlete.

As a professional sportswoman, Ajunwa originally played football for the Nigerian women’s team and was a member of The Falcons during the Women’s World Cup in 1991, and later became the first West-African female, as well as the first Nigerian, to win an Olympic gold medal in a track and field event when she emerged victorious in the women’s long jump event at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Other Mbaise dignitaries to be honoured on Saturday include Mrs. Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, a development specialist and advocate against domestic violence, founder and executive director of Project Alert; Surv. Joe Anosike, President General of Ezuruezu Mbaise, the apex Mbaise socio-cultural organization; his predecessor, Chief Barr. Cyril Anyanwu; Chief Sir Austin Onwubiko; Mr. Kelechi Deca Anyanwu, a journalist; Barr. Louis M. Alozie SAN; and Mr. Emeka Ariguzo, a businessman.
Also included in the list are Mr. Andy Ndubuisi Eke, Hon. Justice Kenneth Amadi, Chief Chibuzor Enwereuzor, Mr. Ken Njoku, Prof. Polycarp Nwoha, Prof. Valentine Ekechukwu, former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Prof. Ikechukwu N.S. Dozie, Vice-Chancellor, Kingsley Ozuomba Mbadiwe University (KOMU) Ideato, Imo State; and Ezeji Alozie Aguwa.

The occasion themed “The University of Mbaise (Ejiri mara Mbaise) So long! How long?” will be chaired by the Managing Director of Universal Insurance Plc., Ben Ujoatuonu.

Surveyor Anosike, one of the awardees will wear a double cap of guest of honour at the event. Special guest of honour will be the Executive Director of Fidelity Bank, Sir Stanley Amuchie.

Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Anthony Ojukwu (SAN), who is also an awardee, will be at the occasion as a distinguished guest.

Keynote speaker at the event is Prof Ekechukwu while Prof Dozie will also deliver a paper.

The MPC distinguished professional achievement award has over the years assumed a life of its own and has become the most important local recognition accorded successful sons and daughters of Mbaise nation by the people themselves.

In 2014, Stanley Chiedoziem Amuchie, former Chief Financial Officer, Zenith Bank and now Executive Director Fidelity Bank; Caroline Chidiebere Anyanwu, former Deputy Managing Director Diamond Bank Plc.; Mr. Emeka Oparah, former head of corporate affairs Airtel Nigeria and current head of corporate affairs, Airtel Africa; Eucharia Uche, pioneer coach of Super Falcons; and Kelechi Nwosu, MD TBWA Concept, were awardees.

In 2015, Mr. Frank Nneji, founder ABC Transport, Prof Caroline Opara of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos; Mr. Felix Chukwu, then Chairman of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and Dr. Ken Opara, Executive Director Fidelity Bank, were awardees.

In 2017, Miss Chioma Victoria Eluwa was bestowed with the Great Mbaise Ambassador Award for her outstanding academic achievement. She did the Mbaise Nation proud by attaining the Best Overall Graduating Student position in the Federal University of Technology Minna in the 2015/2016 academic session.

Equally honoured that year with the “Nwanne di na mba nde Mbaise award,” was Chief P.I. Anegbe, Managing Director/CEO, Intercontinental Distillers Limited, Ota, for his continued support to MPC over the years.

Electoral frauds: The seeds of injustice being planted in judgments by Nigerian courts will germinate sooner or later

By Jubrin Okutepa, SAN

When the fruits of the seeds of injustice being planted in judgments by Nigerian courts in aid of electoral frauds germinate sooner or later, all those who planted the seeds in judgments may not escape the calamitous end of our democracy.

To hold that subpoenaed witnesses cannot testify in election petitions either orally or by written form is indeed a recipe for anarchy and destruction of Nigerian democracy.

The institution that has responsibility to aid justice cannot continue to mount judicial road blocks for attaining that justice on the arid altar of technicality. Stolen evidence we are told is admissible. Electoral Act 2022 makes Evidence Act applicable in the hearing and determination of election petitions.

Subpoena is one of the ways to get evidence under the Evidence Act. What a country of absurdities.
Then no need to seek justice in court. INEC does not release documents before election petitions are filed. Justice is being slaughtered on the altar of undue legal technicality in our electoral jurisprudence by our courts and the judex are just behaving and playing the ostrich?. Too Sad.

Who will save the legal profession in Nigeria?

By Sonnie Ekwowusi

I think we should be having a conversation around this query. I keep on saying that living in denial or pretending that all is well is a great de-service to the legal profession. Never in Nigerian history has the Nigerian judiciary been so bastardized. Not even during the military dictatorial regimes was the judiciary in such a pity mess.

Prof . Chidi Odinkalu seems to be the only light shining amid the darkness. Where are other top lawyers? What is happening to us? I must confess today that I have lost the zeal in putting on the wig and gown for any reason.

The public is mad at us. They treat us with contempt. Those who surround me see me as a security risk.

You can argue, but this is a fact. We must confront this truth. Shying away from it by making all sorts of arguments complicate matters.

Think again. What do we do? The current NBA has failed. Top lawyers have failed in leading by example

What do we do?

Pro-Life activist Chris Slattery dies at 68

By Sonnie Ekwowusi

Prominent pro-life activist, founder and the CEO of Expectancy Mother Care Crisis Pregnancy Centre, Chris SLATTERY is dead.

Chris a member of Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church, died in Calvary Hospice, Bronx, New York City, United States on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, after battling with double cancer for years.

Remembered for his unflinching commitment to the rescue of the unborn amid the threat by the abortionists, Chris courageously set up his Crisis Pregnancy Centers in front of the abortion clinics in the parts of New York City where abortion is performed. Chris believed that the best way to destroy the abortion industry is to rescue the unborn before they are killed. Because Chris was saving the lives of many unborn children, the abortionists in New York City took him to court many times but he defeated them in court in those court cases.

Generous, simple, unassuming and admirable Catholic faithful, Chris purchased a House in the central part of Bronx in New York City and dedicated the House to prolife work and activities. Every year, Chris invited interns from across the world including Nigeria to spend some time in the House and assist in going to abortion clinics in New York City to save the lives of the unborn. Chris usually gave the interns free feeding, free accommodation and free transportation throughout their stay. And on completion of their stay, Chris usually gave them some dollars on their way home.

In September 2023, Chris had proposed to come to Nigeria to deliver a Free Crisis Pregnancy Training on how to save the lives of the born, but he suddenly went into a cancer crisis at that time. Consequently, the Training was put on hold pending Chris’ recovery.

With the passing of Chris, the pro-life community in the world has indeed lost a great fighter in the struggle to save the lives of the unborn. Our consolation, however is that Chris is enjoying the beatific vision at the moment in company with all the unborn babies whose lives he has saved while on earth.

With tears in our eyes, we commend our brother Chris to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Angels as we beseech Our Lord to welcome Chris into His heavenly glory where there is unending bliss, peace, fellowship and joy.

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