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Tag: Appeal Court

  • ‘I will conclude my tenure in 2023’- Umahi reacts to Appeal Court judgment

    ‘I will conclude my tenure in 2023’- Umahi reacts to Appeal Court judgment

    Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi has said that his administration will conclude its tenure on May 29, 2023, irrespective of its challenges.

    Umahi said this on Friday while reacting to the judgment of the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu which affirmed the judgment of the Ebonyi High court on his defection.

    The Ebonyi High Court had quashed a suit challenging the defection of the governor from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nov. 2020.

    Umahi while presiding over the weekly state Executive Council meeting, congratulated the people of the state over the judgment and thanked various religious bodies for their prayers.

    “The enemies have tried using the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the courts but failed.

    “They are presently writing all forms of frivolous petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    “We will however, defeat them any where they go and would finish strongly,” he said.

    He declared that God brought his government to power and will never abandon it.

    “The good thing is that people know that the challenges are mere storm in a tea cup and distractions.

    “We will conduct a special praise and worship service on Sunday to thank God for His mercies on the government and the people.

    “We will sing praises unto God because he has turned big in everything that concerns us,” he said.

    The suit challenging the governor’s defection was filed by the flagbearers of the APC in the 2019 general election, Sen. Sunny
    Ogbuoji and his running mate, Chief Justin Ogodo.

    The plaintiffs had prayed the court to order INEC to swear them-in as the governor and deputy governor of the state having placed second in the gubernatorial election.

  • Union Trustees Limited appeals vacated ex-parte order freezing the assets of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc

    Union Trustees Limited appeals vacated ex-parte order freezing the assets of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc

    Union Trustees Limited has approached the Court of Appeal against to challenge the ruling of Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos that vacated an ex-parte order freezing the assets of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc.

     

    Union Trustees Limited also filed an application seeking to stay the execution of the order.

     

    Respondents in the suit are: Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc, Aso Saving and Loan Plc and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.

     

    The applicant is asking the Appeal Court to set aside the ruling of the Federal High Court delivered on Wednesday, which discharged/varied the interim Mareva Order and Order for the appointment of Receiver /Manager made on February 24, 2022.

     

    The applicant based its application on the ground that the lower court erred in law when it heard and determined the motion on notice dated March 7, 2022, filed by Dr Muiz Banire (SAN) when his competence to represent Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc had been challenged.

     

    It also argued that the hearing and determination of the application filed by Banire was wrong as the court ought to have first resolved the issue of legal representation before proceeding to other substantial issues such as the motion to vary/discharge the interim orders.

     

    Union Trustees, in its motion for stay of execution of the ruling filed before Justice Daniel Osiagor, is asking the judge for an order suspending the effect of the ruling vacating the Mareva injunction pending the determination of its appeal at the Court of Appeal.

     

    It is also seeking an order of injunction pending appeal maintaining status quo and restraining the respondents whether by themselves or their counsel, agents or privies from taking any steps whatsoever to interfere with the orders of February 24, 2022, or the ongoing Receivership of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc pending the determination of the Applicant’ appeal to the Court of Appeal.

     

    The applicant is further praying the court for an order restraining the Respondents whether by themselves or their counsel, agents or privies from publishing, either by social media, by print or electronic publications, however, described or by making any form of representation to the public in respect of the first and second Respondents as relates to the vacation of the Orders of the court and/or the ongoing Receivership of the 1st Respondent, pending the determination of the Applicant’s appeal to the Court of Appeal.

     

    In an affidavit attached to the application, Union Trustees Limited claimed that it commenced this suit for the recovery of debt owed by the first and second Respondents to the tune of N41.2 billion.

     

    It also stated that to preserve the Respondents’ assets pending the determination of the suit and forestall a dissipation of assets, its applied and obtained an Order of Mareva injunction freezing the funds and assets of the Respondents as well as an Order appointing a Receiver/Manager for the first Respondent its undertakings, businesses and assets for the preservation of same among other orders.

     

    On March 23, the court delivered a ruling vacating the orders notwithstanding that another counsel had filed a notice of preliminary objection dated March 22, 2022, to challenge the authority of counsel representing the first Defendants to act as counsel to the said Respondent in this suit.

  • Court of Appeal dismisses appeal by Gada-led faction for lack of territorial jurisdiction

    Court of Appeal dismisses appeal by Gada-led faction for lack of territorial jurisdiction

    An appeal filed by the Senator Abubakar Gada-led faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto State has been struck out by the Appeal Court in Abuja on Thursday for lack of territorial jurisdiction.

     

    Senators Aliyu Wamakko and Abubakar Gada have been battling for the
    state’s congresses of the party.

     

    An FCT High Court had earlier declined an application by a faction of the APC in Sokoto State loyal to a former governor of the state, Aliyu Wamakko, to set aside its earlier judgement over the disputed congresses in the state.

     

    The Wamakko group however appealed the FCT High Court judgement.

     

    The appeal was brought by the party’s state chairman, Isa Sadiq Acida.

     

    Earlier, Acida had asked a High Court in Sokoto to restrain APC from recognising Mainasara Abubakar Sani and others as officers and delegates of the ward, LG and state congresses of the party which were held on October 13, September 14 and October 16, 2021 respectively.

     

    Delivering ruling on the appeal by the Gada’s group, the member panel of Justices, H.S Tsammani, B.A. Georgewill and D.S Senchi unanimously submitted that the FCT High Court lacked territorial jurisdiction and struck out the appeal.

     

    The judges frowned at the trend of forum shopping by legal counsels and warned them to desist from dragging the courts into ignoble practices.

  • Court frees popular Ondo prophet jailed for life over missing one-year old boy from his church

    Court frees popular Ondo prophet jailed for life over missing one-year old boy from his church

    The Court of Appeal Sitting in Akure has discharged and acquitted a prophet, Alfa Babatunde, who was sentenced to life imprisonment over the mysterious disappearance of a one-year-old boy, Gold Kolawole, from his church.

    Justice Hamma Barka delivered the judgement on Friday and set aside the judgement of an Ondo State High Court which sentenced Babatunde.

    Babatunde, who founded Sotitibire Praising Chapel in Akure, was arrested by officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) after Gold was said to have disappeared during service in November 2019.

    He was later taken to court along with six members of the church over allegations that they conspired to kidnap the boy.

    The clergyman and the other suspects have since been remanded at the Olokuta Correctional Facility in the Ondo State capital while the case continued.

    In October 2020, Justice Olusegun Odusola of the high court in Akure sentenced the prophet and five others to life imprisonment.

    The seventh person was discharged and acquitted as the court held that the prosecution counsel could not prove any case against him.

    The defendants were sentenced on two counts of kidnapping, as well as aiding and abetting to kidnap, based on the evidence provided by the prosecutor.

    Those charged along with Prophet Babatunde were Olayinka Omodara, Margaret Oyebola, Grace Ogunjobi, Motunrayo Egunjobi, Esther Kayode and Peter Anjorin.

    Four months after he began his jail sentence, Babatunde approached the Court of Appeal in February to prove his innocence in the crime.

    When the case resumed at the appellate court, the presiding judge, Justice Rita Pemu, reserved the judgement to a date to be communicated to all relevant parties.

    At the resumed sitting of the court on Friday, Justice Barka set aside the judgement of the high court on the ground that the evidence presented was not strong enough to convict the prophet.

  • Alleged fraud: Court upholds withdrawal of Orji Kalu’s university certificate

    Alleged fraud: Court upholds withdrawal of Orji Kalu’s university certificate

    A court of appeal sitting in Owerri, the Imo State capital, has upheld the withdrawal of the Bachelors’ degree certificate of former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzo Kalu, by the Abia State University.

    The presiding judge, Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, on Tuesday, thereby, nullified the judgement of a high court in Isikwuato, Abia State which had restored the Bachelors’ degree certificate of the former governor.

    In 2018, the Abia State University withdrew Senator Kalu’s certificate over allegations of fraud and breach of admission regulations concerning his graduation.

    But the former governor later approached a state high court in Isikuato in Abia State challenging the allegations and the subsequent withdrawal of his degree by the university.

    The appeal court’s decision on Tuesday was on the grounds that the state high court in Isikwuato lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

  • Appeal Court upholds final forfeiture order of Diezani’s $40m worth of jewellery

    Appeal Court upholds final forfeiture order of Diezani’s $40m worth of jewellery

    The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has upheld the final forfeiture order on the $40 million worth of jewellery seized from the premises of the former Minister for Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke.

    Justice Festus Obande, who read the judgment on Friday, held that there was no substance in Alison-Madueke’s bid to overturn the lower court’s order and subsequently dismissed the move by the former Minister to challenge the forfeiture order.

    Barring any appeal by the former minister to the Supreme Court, the jewelleries are to be forfeited to the Federal Government.

    In July 2019 the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had secured an order from Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court to temporarily forfeit the expensive items to the Federal Government.

    According to the schedule attached to the forfeiture application, the jewellery, categorised into 33 sets, includes “419 expensive bangles; 315 expensive rings; 304 expensive earrings; 267 expensive necklaces; 189 expensive wristwatches; 174 expensive necklaces and earrings; 78 expensive bracelets; 77 expensive brooches; and 74 expensive pendants.”

    In his application for the final forfeiture order, EFCC counsel Mr Rotimi Oyedepo had told the judge that the items were reasonably suspected to have been acquired with the proceeds of unlawful activities of the former minister.

    An investigator with the Commission, Rufai Zaki, in an affidavit before the court insisted that the jewelleries were beyond the former minister’s “known and provable lawful income.”

    The investigator further said that findings by the EFCC showed that she started acquiring them in 2012, two years after she was appointed Minister.

    The investigator also said that the EFCC was in possession of the details of the bank account through which Mrs Alison-Madueke received her salary as a minister.

    “The respondent did not utilise her salary or any part of her legitimate income to acquire the assets sought to be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Zaki said.

    He said a “damning intelligence report” received by the Commission led to the search of former minister’s house at No. 10 Fredrick Chiluba Close, Asokoro, Abuja.

    The former Minister on her part had challenged the seizure of the jewelleries from her premises by the EFCC.

    An affidavit filed on her behalf by her counsel, Prof Awa Kalu (SAN), Diezani, who is currently in the United Kingdom, alleged that the EFCC violated her fundamental “right to own property and to appropriate them at her discretion,” under sections 43 and 44 of the constitution.

    She also accused the anti-graft agency of entering her apartment illegally and taking the items without any court order.

  • BREAKING: PDP defeats Secondus, Appeal Court okays party’s national convention

    BREAKING: PDP defeats Secondus, Appeal Court okays party’s national convention

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has defeated it’s suspended national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus in court, with a directive to go ahead with its national convention unhindered.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Secondus had approached the Court of Appeal, sitting in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital to challenge his removal as the PDP’s national chairman.

    He also approached the court to stop the party from holding its National Convention as scheduled for 30th to 31st of October, 2021 in Abuja, the federal capital territory (FCT).

    However, the Court of Appeal has passed judgement, ruling in favour of the PDP to hold its National Convention as scheduled.

    The three-man panel dismissed the appeal which was filed on October 14, 2021 for lacking in merit.

    The judgement was read by Justice Gabriel Kolawale, and was unanimously endorsed by the other two members of the panel.

    The panel ruled that Secondus voluntarily relinquished his office since he did not challenge his removal at ward and local government levels.

     

     

    Details shortly…

  • National Convention: Appeal Court decides for PDP tomorrow

    National Convention: Appeal Court decides for PDP tomorrow

    The Appeal Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State will on Friday decide whether or not the Peoples Democratic Party will go ahead with the conduct of its National Convention this weekend.

    A panel of three justices, headed by the Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, reserved the ruling on Thursday after hearing arguments in the application filed by the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Uche Secondus to suspend the conduct of the convention.

    The convention, slated for October 30 and 31 in Abuja, had been fixed by the PDP’s National Working Committee as part of efforts to resolve the party’s internal crisis.

    The convention is expected to lead to the election of new national officers.

    But this decision did not go down well with Secondus, hence the filing of the application.

    During Thursday’s proceedings, Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), counsel to Secondus, argued that refusing to grant his application to stop the PDP Convention can be likened to “pulling off the rug under the feet of the appellant”.

    He said his client will be permanently denied the right to preside over or participate in the convention if the pending applications bordering on his leadership and membership status go in his favour.

    But the submission was opposed by Henry Bello, counsel to the first to fifth respondents, who are the Chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party in five Local Government Areas of Rivers State.

    The Chairmen are challenging Secondus’s legal right to resume as National Chairman of the PDP following his suspension from the party in his ward in Ikuru Town in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.

    Mr. Bello reading an except of his 24-paragraph affidavit sworn to by the First respondent (one of the LGA party Chairmen), argued that the application to stop the PDP convention by Uche Secondus, was alien to the existing appeals before the court bordering on the leadership and membership of Uche Secondus in the party.

    The opposition by Henry Bello was supported by the lawyer to the PDP, Sunday Ameh (SAN).

    He submitted that Secondus voluntarily handed over the authorities of his office to a subordinate who has been acting lawfully as the National Chairman and is bestowed with the right to preside over the National Convention.

    According to him, “the balance of convenience in the matter is in not granting the application” to stop the convention.

    Also, Donald Dee-Nwigwe (SAN), representing the ninth and 10th respondents, picked holes in the argument by Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) that the conduct of the National Convention by the PDP will be a denial of Uche Secondus right to preside over the convention.

    He submitted that, “a Chairmanship position of the PDP is at best a political privilege, not a right” and that the September judgment of a High Court in Rivers State which validated the suspension of Uche Secondus from the party has nullified any such privilege which Uche Secondus seeks to protect through his application.

    Other counsels, including Godwin Obla (SAN), Sebastine Horns, who represented other respondents like the National Vice Chairman, South-South of the PDP, Dan Obih, also opposed the application to stop the PDP convention.

    To further defend his application, counsel to Secondus, Tayo Oyetibo argued that the use of the word “Shall” in the PDP convention bestowed on Uche Secondus, the right, not privilege to preside over party conversations.

    He also submitted that the application before the court is not to “prohibit the convention of the party, but to suspend the convention pending the determination of the rights of the parties”.

  • VAT controversy: Appeal Court approves Lagos’ request to join Rivers’ suit against FG

    VAT controversy: Appeal Court approves Lagos’ request to join Rivers’ suit against FG

    The Court of Appeal in Abuja has granted a request by the Lagos State Government, seeking to join Rivers State in the appeal filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the FIRS had filed an appeal at the appellate court to challenge the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) by states.

    At the resumed hearing of the matter on Thursday, the court granted the request by Lagos and ordered all processes filed to be served on the Attorney-General of the state, Moyosore Onigbanjo.

    The case was later adjourned to October 7 and would be heard at the Appellate Court in Port Harcourt.

    On September 16, the court reserved its ruling on the application after Onigbanjo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), took his application for joinder in the suit.

    He had informed the panel of judges led by Justice Haruna Tsammani that Lagos was entitled to collect VAT, saying the VAT Act was approved by an order of a court, although it had been annulled.

    According to the attorney-general, states that are recognised by the Constitution to collect VAT and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is aware of that fact.

    He added that the principles for joinder of a party, seeking to be joined, must be a necessary party that has shown that its interest, legally and financially, would be affected.

    While Onigbanjo explained that the case of joinder sought was to prevent multiplicity of action, counsel to the Rivers State government and SAN, Ifedayo Adedipe, supported the application by the Lagos State government.

    But counsel to the FIRS and SAN, Mahmoud Magaji, opposed the application for joinder while relying on Section 243 of the Constitution.

    He stated that the Constitution does not support applications for joinder and Lagos State was not a party to the suit at the trial court.

  • Strike: Resident doctors fault court judgement ordering them to resume immediately, head to Appeal Court

    Strike: Resident doctors fault court judgement ordering them to resume immediately, head to Appeal Court

    The leadership of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has faulted the ruling of the National Industrial Court (NIC) directing its members to return to work.

    A communique jointly signed by NARD President, Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, and the union’s Secretary-General, Dr Jerry Isogun, on Friday revealed that the doctors have begun the process to appeal the ruling.

    “As we are all aware, especially those that were present in court today (Friday), the NIC has given a ruling on the application for interlocutory injunction filed by the Federal Government,” the statement said. “We are not satisfied with the ruling.

    “After consultations with our lawyers, we have instructed our lawyers to appeal the ruling and file an application for stay of execution.”

    The statement is in reaction to the ruling of Justice Bashar Alkali who ordered the resident doctors to suspend their ongoing industrial action and return to work immediately, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

    Justice Alkali who ruled on an application by the government had also directed parties in the matter to return to the negotiating table, saying no amount of money could compensate for the loss of lives as a result of the impasse.

    In demonstration of its displeasure with the decision of the court, NARD instructed its lawyers to file necessary processes, rather than ask members to return to their duty posts.

    It also asked the doctors to remain calm and resolute, saying “everything depends on our firm resolve.”

    “We are committed to protecting your rights within the confines of the law. We believe justice shall be ours ultimately,” the union told its members.

    It stated that the court had reserved ruling on which application it would take first on Wednesday, and its lawyers argued that the court ought to hear and determine the Notice of Preliminary Objection (NPO) filed by the doctors to challenge the jurisdiction of the court before taking the application for an interlocutory injunction or any other application.

    The union added that the court adjourned ruling on the argument on the matter until Friday, after which it ruled that it would take the government’s application for interlocutory injunction first while its NPO would be taken and determined along with the substantive suit.

    “Also, our lawyers drew the attention of the court to our application for stay of execution of the ex parte order and that the court should take that application first. The court insisted that the government application would be taken first.

    “On 15/9/21, the court ordered all parties to resume negotiations. The government refused to resume negotiations in line with the order of 23/8/21. Our lawyers reported this development to the court. We have demonstrated good faith and would continue to do so,” the statement said.