By Nkereuwem Udofia Akpan
I’m truly comfortable with the whole spectacle and trajectory that this trial is going and excited by the detailed and wide reportage we are being bombarded with from all angles in this matter.
Each day brings new developments that seems to add flesh to some of the sketchy tales we have heard and have heard over the years about the rot in our judicial system. I read the Justice Kayode Edo Report almost 20 years ago and felt it was bad enough but with each day the Eso Report now looks like child’s play.
In all of my quarter of a century practice of law, I’ve been detained, remanded, beaten and tortured and encountered a lot of injustice and misuse of the judicial process against my person personally as an activist and had thought I’d seen it all
I never believed that a Court of law could sit over a criminal matter where the court has no iota of legal basis so to do in my lifetime. We are not talking about a civil case where jurisdiction can sometimes be debatable but here we are talking about a criminal trial being pursued against a citizen, where the alleged offence is unknown to the law of the venue of trial.
Firstly the offence from which Farotimi is being charged is unknown to the laws of Ekiti where he is being tried or Lagos State from where he was abducted.
Secondly, the Magistrate Court has no jurisdiction to try an “offence” not recognized by law in Ekiti State
Thirdly we are not talking about an irregularity in the exercise of jurisdiction but a total absence of jurisdiction to try.
Fourthly, while we are still grappling with that, I’m reliably informed that the Magistrate Court has granted Dele Farotimi Bail in the dim of “N30 million (Thirty million naira and 2 Sureties in like sum “
Now to the layman and uninitiated, Farotimi is not expected to make the N60m available in cash but nevertheless, the Sureties will forfeit the bond if there’s a default.
That’s a whooping N60 million Naira bail bond being ordered by a Magistrate whose monetary jurisdiction should not be anywhere close to such a humongous amount.
I never knew that Magistrate Courts can try offences not recognised by the laws of the state. What is more? I never knew Magistrate Courts could pronounce a sum, and quadruple its monetary jurisdiction when it comes to bail.
This Dele Farotimi’s case indeed has opened our eyes to things we never knew were tenable in our jurisprudence. This case keeps lowering the bar of a fair trial at every turn.
With all of these going on in the glare of the worldwide audience, amplified by billions of people across all social media platforms
What other evidence will be required on the misuse of the judicial process in Nigeria when this very trial itself is the evidence that the world is calling for.
Chief Nkereuwem Udofia Akpan, Constitutional Lawyer Author and Human Rights Activist can be reached on [email protected]. and on X formerly Twitter @Chiefnkereuwem
