Legal Nigeria

*Refuses EFCC ex-prosecutor’s plea
By Onozure Dania
Lagos—A Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday refused to grant an ex-parte application filed by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, seeking to secure her release from the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia
In another development, an ex- prosecutor of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Godwin Obla (SAN) also urged the court to state that his continued detention by the commission is unlawful.
Obla is praying the court for an order directing the respondent to pay him the sum of N1billion, for his unlawful arrest and detention.
The EFCC had preferred a 30-count charge against Obla and the Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia over conspiracy to pervert justice for the sum of N5 million.
The anti- graft agency had detained the duo in its custody, pending the conclusion of its investigations.
While arguing his application, Obla’s counsel, Mr Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN) informed the court that he had a written address in support of his application, as well as a further and better affidavit, and an affidavit of urgency all filed on November 14.
Justice Sule Hassan, while declining the request of Ofili-Ajumogobia, ordered the applicant to put the anti-graft agency on notice.
”The prayers being sought could not be heard by motion ex-parte,” he said.
Hearing was however fixed for November 28.
Ajumogobia’s lawyer, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) had while arguing the application faulted the continued detention of the judge in the EFCC’s custody.
Onigbanjo argued that the commission has an option to charge Ajumogobia to court if it is sure she has committed any offence.
He said: “The EFCC has the option to charge her to court but it has not done so. She has also stated that she is ready to defend herself vigorously against any charge that may be slammed on her.
“She is ready to deposit her passport and abide by any other condition that the court may impose on her. There is no need under the law to continue to keep her in detention except to humiliate her because the offence is bailable”
The EFCC counsel Rotimi Oyedepo while responding argued that the steps taken by the commission were allowed by law in the dispensation of its duties. According to him, intelligence report showed that the applicant had a company known as Obla & Co Ltd, from which the sum of N5 million was transferred to Hon. Justice Ajumogobia via a company known as Nigel & Colive Ltd.
He also said that following intelligence reports, Ajumogobia was discovered to be sole signatory to Nigel & Colive Ltd, Justice Mohammed Idris, however adjourned the case to November 25 for judgement.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has preferred a 30-count charge against a Federal High Court Judge, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, and Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.In the charge listed as number LD/367/C/16, Ofili-Ajumogobia was listed as the first defendant, while Obla was named as second defendant.The defendants were said to have committed the offence on May 21, 2015, by conspiring to pervert the course of justice with five million Naira.The money was alleged to have been transferred to one Nigel & Colive Ltd. in relation to a charge number FHC/L/C/482/10.

Ajumogobia is said to be a sole signatory to Nigel & Colive Ltd.Both defendants were said to have conspired to pervert the course of justice in contravention of the provisions of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011.In counts one to four, Obla was said to have offered gratification by transferring the money from his company’s account, Obla & Co., domiciled with the United Bank for Africa, to Nigel & Colive.The transfer was alleged to have been made in order to restrain a public officer from acting in the exercise of her official duties.In counts five, Ajumogobia was said to have unlawfully enriched herself by receiving a transfer of N18 million from one Arkleem Oil and Gas Ltd. in her Diamond Bank account.In counts six to 20, the judge was alleged to have also received a transfer of monies from various outlets to her Diamond Bank account to the tune of over 788,000 dollars.In count 29, the judge was alleged to have forged a deed of assignment between a company, County-City Bricks Dev. Co. Ltd and Nigel & Colive Ltd.In counts 30, the judge was further alleged to have made a false statement to the EFCC that she was on admission at Gold Cross Hospital at Bourdillion, Ikoyi, which statement was found to be false.All the offences are said to be contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011 as well as the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004.No date has been fixed for the arraignment of the accused.
Credit : The Nation 

The Federal Government has hired a former International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Charles Adeogun-Philips, to lead its team of lawyers to prosecute the Supreme Court Registrar and others for alleged N2.2b fraud.But the arraignment of the three senior officials of the apex court was put off yesterday by Justice Abba Mohammed of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Jabi, Abuja because one of the Supreme Court officials, Muhammed Sharif, was absent.The Federal Government on November 3 filed a nine-count charge against Chief Registrar Ahmed Saleh, Sharif and Rilwanu Lawal (who are both officials of the court’s Account Department.)They are charged with conspiracy and criminal breach of trust for allegedly diverting N2.2billion belonging to the apex court and receiving gratification as public officers.

The three officials are also accused of receiving N74.4m gratification from contractors between 2009 and 2016.The contractors from which they allegedly received the gratification are Willysdave Ltd., Welcon Nig. Ltd., Dean Musa Nig. Ltd., Ababia Ventures Ltd. and MBR Computers Ltd.On November 8, Justice Mohammed granted a request by prosecution lawyer Hajara Yusuf for time to produce the three defendants in court for arraignment, following which the court adjourned till November 17 for arraignment.Saleh and Lawal were in court. Sharif was absent.Garba Tetengi (SAN), who announced appearance for Sharif, said he was ill and was on admission at the hospital. He sought an adjournment, which other defence lawyers – Abdulhakeem Mustapha – SAN – (for Saleh) and I.K Sanusi – SAN (for Lawal) did not object.The Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF), Mohammed Umar, who led the prosecution team, later yielded proceedings to Adeogun-Philips, who spoke for the prosecution.Umar said the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had in exercising his powers under Section 174(1) of the Constitution, elected to engage an international lawyer to conduct prosecution in the case.Adeogun-Philips said he was unhappy that Tetengi could not provide any document to show that Sharif was on admission in the hospital.Justice Mohammed rescheduled the arraignment for December 15.
Source : The Nation 

Poised to mitigate the increasing number of road crashes in the country, the Road Safety Coalition (RSC), a coalition of non-governmental organisations, has called for an inter-agency cooperation, collaboration and coordination of activities among enforcement agencies.They also seek collaboration of the enforcement agencies in ensuring a structured driver’s licensing process.For human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), the time is now for the investigation of all road traffic accidents and the prosecution of offending motorists. According to him, the killing of Nigerians on the roads should be stopped or reduced drastically.While regretting that government has not lived up to its constitutional duties, he stated plans of collecting data on the number of deaths on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway due to the deplorable state of the road, with a view to initiating legal actions against government and others who contributed to the state of the road.He further called on the Lagos State government to ensure that commercial vehicles in the state are insured so that the lives lost to accidents are not simply wasted.The coalition, which rose from its national summit in Lagos, with the theme “Road Safety Enforcement in Nigeria: Where Are We?”, called for the use of technology in the enforcement process to reduce direct contact between motorists and law enforcement agencies.Speaking at the summit held in conjunction with NNPC/Chevron Joint venture, chairman of the coalition, Mr. Patrick Adenusi, noted that despite the huge resources and time devoted by officials on the roads, high volume of chaos still persist. He, therefore, stressed the need to tackle the issue of poor road users for Nigeria to move forward.The Assistant Corps Marshal, Shehu Zaki, stressed the need for collaboration among relevant stakeholders to proffer solutions to road crashes as well as formulate a framework that will assist each of the agencies in its work in reducing road crashes in Nigeria.According to him, the corps has done a lot to reduce the number of crashes through the enforcement of speed limits.

Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) Nigeria Branch chairperson Mrs Adedoyin Rhodes-Vivour has called for a review of outdated laws on arbitration.According to her, developing Nigeria into a favoured arbitration centre would enhance economic development.She spoke in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, during the institute’s annual conference.According to Mrs Rhodes-Vivour, if Nigeria must take its rightful place as a preferred seat of arbitration and an investor-friendly country, the legislative regime for arbitration must be in line with best practices.

Nigeria, she said, needed to adopt modern arbitration frameworks that allow for multiple practice, consolidation of proceedings, concurrent hearings, emergency proceedings, enforcement of interim measures/procedural orders, among others.“It is long overdue for Nigeria to conduct a comprehensive review of all legislations which impact negatively on Nigeria’s attractiveness as an arbitration seat. Developing Nigeria into a favoured place of arbitration will enhance our country’s growth and economic development,” she said.The conference featured a special session to strategise with oil industry experts to create effective ways to apply alternative dispute resolution in resolving disputes in the industry.Mrs Rhodes-Vivour said the turbulence in the hydrocarbon industry would require effective and expeditious resolution of disputes in assuaging the effects of the downturn in the oil market.She said Singapore’s economy, for instance, grew partly due to an effective arbitration system as businesses easily resolved their disputes amicably out of court.Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who gave the keynote address, decried double standards in the fight against corruption.“We are on our way to anarchy if we encourage or allow law enforcement agencies the latitude to abuse the fundamental rights of our citizens under the guise of fighting corruption. We also think that the Federal Government must hold every public officer, and indeed, every one of us, to the same standards of accountability,” he said.Chief Judge of Rivers State Adama Iyayi-Laminkara said the judiciary recognised the importance of arbitration and would encourage it.Rivers Attorney-General Mr Emmanuel Aguma said his ministry had trained lawyers and judges on arbitration.The conference also had sessions on emergency arbitration proceedings, third party funding, effects of modern technology/innovation, entertainment disputes, the role of mediators in modern forms of disputes such as terrorism and insurgency.Source: The Nation