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  • Drama as angry youths humiliate Ozekhome at Gani Fawehinmi lecture

    …accuses him of defending corrupt people

    There was pandemonium on Monday at the 14th Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture when angry protesters mobbed Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and stopped him from mounting the podium to speak.

    The incident happened at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, venue of the lecture organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch and which has as its theme: “Federalism, Restructuring and Good Governance: Striking a Balance”.

    Ozekhome, who arrived the venue at about 1.10 p.m., was stopped from entering the hall by the protesters comprising some youths and students. They milled round the senior lawyer singing songs composed of defamatory words as they stopped him from entering the hall.

    The incident forced the keynote speaker, a former Dean, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo (OAU), Ile-Ife, Prof Demola Popoola to stop his paper for about 20 minutes.

    At the high table was the former General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Chief Frank Ovie Kokori, who was chairman of the event, and the Adeboruwa of Igbogbo, Oba Semiu Orimadegun Kasali among others.

    Ozekhome was slated as a contributor alongside Ms Onyeka Onwenu and Seun Kuti, son of late Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

    The protesters accused Ozekhome of defending personalities like Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, wife of former President, Mrs Patience Jonathan and Senate President Bukola Saraki among others, who they labeled as corrupt, contrary to the ideals for which the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi stood for.

    It took the intervention of Mr Femi Falana (SAN), the NBA Ikeja Chairman, Mr Adeshina Ogunlana and Mr Mohammed Fawehinmi to bring the situation under control.

    Mohammed told the protesting youths that his late father did not believe in violence but rather was very democratic.

    He said late Fawehinmi would not have approved what they did because Chief Ozekhome was at the event for a purpose.

    “This gathering is a democratic gathering and it is a gathering in which security should not restrict anybody”, he said adding that he was about nine years old when Chief Ozekhome was working as a counsel in his late father’s chamber.

    Ozekhome, who later addressed the gathering, told them that he was very close to the late Fawehinmi and that together they formulated and started the publication, “Nigerian weekly Law Report” .

    He said:”Gani fought across the country handling many cases including controversial ones.”

    He rcalled that when in 1983, the NBA said that lawyers should not defend alleged corrupt politicians under the administration of Gens. Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon when they were fighting corruption, “but Gani said No; these people are entitled to their rights.

    “By Section 36 of the Constitution, every person’s innocence is presumed; I was with Gani when we were defending the so-called corrupt politicians.

    “I am just coming now from the court where the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) wanted to freeze the account of a citizen via ex parte.

    “I just stopped them again for the 20th time, I will continue to fight the government which looks the other way when corruption is recorded in their system. “I have told Mr Magu three times to prosecute at least one person in their government so that we can show that corruption is being fought,’’ he said.

    “The Shiites that were mowed down during their protests, the massacre in Southern Kaduna, Enugu State and so many other incidents are as a result of lack of true federalism and restructuring,’’ he said.

    His address was punctuated by the protesters who shouted “lies, lies, lies’’ even as the senior advocate told the protesters that he would not be intimidated and called them hired protersters.

    Falana gave clarifications that the account given by Ozekhome should not be misunderstood to mean that Gani was a defender of corruption.

    Falana said Gani took on some cases to expose corruption and corrupt politicians.

    “He never filed a stay of proceedings. If you have a bad case, Gani would simply tell you that you have a bad case. Go and find out from your history books, Gani never defended anyone being tried by the EFCC or ICPC, I need to correct that misconception”, he said.

    Prof. Popoola, in his lecture titled, “ Re-Inventing the Nigerian State: Imperatives, Prospects and Challenges of Federalism, Restructuring and Good Governance” said the country cannot have meaningful restructuring without economic restructuring.

    He said tit would be difficult for the country to free herself from the many problems it is going through now, including restructuring, not until the people start thinking like global citizens.

  • Buhari’s October 1 speech showed his hatred for Igbos – Ozekhome

    Activist lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech on Octpber 1 clearly displayed his hatred for people of the South-East.

    He said Buhari showed a fixated hatred for Igbos when he berated leaders of the region for allowing those feeling marginalised to agitate for the breakup of the country.

    Describing the speech as not only un-presidential but un-reconciliatory, Ozekhome wondered how Buhari could see nothing wrong in the murderous activities of herdsmen across the country as well as the illegal quit notice asking Igbos to vacate the North without any repercussion against them.

    Ozekhome’s stance on Buhari’s speech was contained, in a statement he signed, entitled ‘President Muhammadu Buhari’s National Day Broadcast: Yet Another Golden Opportunity Lost.”

    According to Ozekhome, “The entire national day broadcast by PMB on the occasion of Nigeria’s 57th independence is quite disappointing in all ramifications.

    “It was very un-presidential and un-reconciliatory. PMB left the real issues and pursued trifles.

    “The broadcast was rabidly narcissist, parochial, nepotic and clannish, as it failed to see anything wrong with the blatant and well reported threats by the Arewa youths to quit fellow Nigerians from their domains.

    “The speech followed his now well worn out fixation of perceived hatred for the Igbo race, whose leadership he needlessly scurilized and lampooned, for allegedly being behind IPOB and other agitations.

    “I doubt and didn’t hear him mention anything about gun wielding herdsmen that literally vanquish citizens in their own homesteads across Nigeria.

    “The President celebrated mediocrity and edified his government’s non-performance two and half years down the line.

    “I genuinely wondered if he was discussing the same country, Nigeria, that I am in, or another utopian planet Mars.

    “The beautiful picture of a peaceful country he painted so glowingly and artistically with the paintbrush of breathless satisfaction is quite different from the stark reality on the ground, which every beleaguered Nigerian labours under.

    “His speech writers either wallowed in utopian mystic of redemptive messianism, or in crass fraud and grand deception.

    “But, Nigerians are no fools. Did I hear PMB say this is the first time a government at the Centre is losing the governorship, senatorial and Houses of Assembly’s elections to the opposite at the state level?

    “No sir, wrong. Whoever gave Mr. President this false electoral history has done him incalculable disservice and great damage and ridicule’.

    “Few examples: Remember Ondo state (Labour Party), Osun and Edo states (AC), Anambra (APGA), etc?

    “Not only did the ruling PDP lose the elections to those opposition parties, the then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan actually rolled out the drums and congratulated the new governors, Senators and House member.

    “Peter Obi won the Anambra state governorship election in 2010 for the second time on the platform of APGA.

    “Obasanjo was President at the Centre under the PDP, just as Bola Tinubu won the Lagos state governorship seat twice under AD and ACN, with Obasanjo as president under PDP at the Centre.

    “Buhari lost yet another golden opportunity to balm bruised nationalities’ ego and cement Nigeria’s yawning cleavages, hate and divisiveness.

    “Must everything be predicated on falsehood, force, threats and gun boat diplomacy, viet armis?

    “It didn’t ever work. When he applied such excessive force and threats to the Niger Delta militants, I counseled then it would not work.

    “The marginalized youth picked up the gauntlet, serially blew up oil pipelines, tore up Nigeria’s oil jugular into smithereens.

    “Crude oil output plummeted to about 700 thousand barrels per day from 1.5m barrels.

    “It took the then Acting President Yemi Osibanjo’s shuttle diplomacy to the Niger Delta region to quell the strife.

    “It was Napoleon Bonarparte, a French General and Emperor (1769-1821), who famously declared: “do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.“PMB sir, allow Nigerians enjoy the full bloom of democracy and its inbuilt mechanisms for conflict resolution.”

  • Dino Melaye will appeal court ruling on recall process – Ozekhome

    Mike Ozekhome, the lawyer to the embattled senator, Dino Melaye, has vowed to file an appeal on Tuesday against the judgement by the federal high court ordering continuation of the process for the federal lawmaker’s recall.

    The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, presided by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, had ordered the continuation of the recall process after dismissing the senator’s motion against it.

    Ozekhome made the statement yesterday while being interviewed on Channel’s TV, Politics Today said The only aspect that we will probably appeal is the aspect that there was no constitutional requirement by INEC as the adjudicator to give a fair hearing to the person being recalled.

    He said, “Let me make clear again another point which some people don’t seem to know. There is Section 68, subsection 2 of the Constitution still awaiting all the players. Whether they were political motivated or not, Dino Melaye has argued in his case that it is politically motivated because he has issues with the governor.

    “Section 68, subsection 2 – what many of them have never looked at is that in this checks and balances (doctrine of separation of powers) the executive has done its own by trying to recall Dino, the judiciary the judiciary has done its own today which decision will be appealed tomorrow.

    “The only aspect that we will probably appeal is the aspect that there was no constitutional requirement by INEC as the adjudicator to give a fair hearing to the person being recalled. I am happy that Mr Soyebi, the INEC’s spokesperson has said ‘Oh, we will give them a copy of the petition for the purpose of fair hearing,” Ozekhome said when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

    “The beauty about this decision is that the court essentially agreed with us. Our major complaint is that Dino Melaye was never even given a copy of this petition to peep into the schedule of the signatories to the petition to recall him. When he went to his constituency, all his constituents that he asked said ‘No, we didn’t append our signatures’.”
    Some of the constituents claimed they were deceived into signing the petition as people came to them under the guise of distributing fertilizer to them, according to Mr Ozekhome.

    “They did not know it was for the purpose of a recall,” he said, adding that some of the constituents said they saw the names of their deceased relatives on the petition.

    Based on this and in the spirit of fair hearing, Mr Ozekhome said it was important for Senator Melaye to review the signatories to determine whether they are genuine or fictitious.

    Indeed, Justice Dimgba in his ruling today ordered INEC to serve Senator Melaye a copy of the petition with the schedule of signatures and list of petitioners. He also asked INEC to amend the recall timetable to give the plaintiff at least two weeks to prepare.

    The court then dismissed all other prayers sought by the Senator.

    Should Senator Melaye be unsatisfied with the petition after reviewing it, he has a right to go back to court.

    Ozekhome said, “Let me quickly put this caveat so that others will get prepared when the battle comes up. If INEC now gives a copy of the petition to Dino Melaye and Dino Melaye now studies it and discovers that there are fictitious names there, there are names from Kogi East or Kogi North instead of Kogi West alone that is his constituency, that some of them are dead, that some of them were simulated and simply adopted from the register of INEC and pasted there, let me enter the caveat, Dino Melaye again has a right to go to court again under Section 6 of the Constitution to ventilate his grievances.”

    Melaye had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on June 23, and asked the court to nullify the process of his recall by declaring the petition presented to INEC as unlawful.

    Two weeks later, on July 6, Justice John Tsoho gave him a temporary respite by making a temporary restraining order on the recall process and directing all parties to maintain status quo.

    However, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, in his judgment today has put the process back on track.

    Those calling for Melaye’s recall represents 52.3 percent of registered voters in the constituency.

    A total of 188,588 – representing 52.3 percent of the 360,098 registered voters in the constituency “signed” the petition for Senator Melaye’s recall.

    Only 79,268 people, however, voted in the election that took Melaye to the Senate.

    At the poll, Melaye secured 41,120 votes to defeat Smart Adeyemi who ran on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party but is now a member of the APC. Adeyemi got 38,148 votes in the election.

    Melaye had since faulted the petition, saying many of those that signed it were not his constituents.

  • You can’t freeze Fayose’s account, A/Court tells EFCC

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has secured another judicial victory against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his accounts domiciled at the Zenith Bank which was frozen last year.

    The Court of Appeal sitting in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday threw out an application for injunction restraining the anti-graft agency from freezing the accounts the governor is operating with Zenith Bank.

    The account was last year June frozen over allegation that it contained a sum of N2.999 billion out of the 3.2 billion dollars suspected to have been distributed through the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).

    But the account was unfrozen on December 13 last year after which Fayose withdrew the sum of N5 million from the bank’s branch in Ado-Ekiti shortly after the judgment was delivered. The EFCC filed an appeal against the judgment on grounds that the money was a proceed of crime.

    The Appeal Court in panel comprising Justices Ahmad Belgore, Fatima Akinbami and Paul Elechi in a unanimous judgment held that that the EFCC did not attach notice of appeal and the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti judgment of December 13, 2016, which ordered the anti-graft agency to unfreeze the governor’s account that the EFCC appealed against.

    The judgement read by Justice Akinbami said: “No valid appeal has been made against the judgement of the lower court which unfreeze the account. Against the judgment the EFCC was appealing against was not attached to this application.

    “EFCC also failed to show sufficient evidence that the money in the account was a proceed of crime as claimed. In doing this, we expect the EFCC to have showed evidence that the plaintiff has been tried for criminal offence before for it to assume that he can receive proceed of crime.

    “We also found that there was suppression of facts to get the account frozen in the first instance. It was also noted that Governor Fayose in line with Section 308 enjoys immunity and his personal account can’t be frozen

    “Having not done all these as demanded by law and equity, as those facts were facts that would assist in exercising the court’s discretion either for or against as it is an application that is predicated on discretion of the court. The application is hereby thrown out,”.

    The court also said that the alleged damning intelligent report by the EFCC, which it claimed to have received concerning money purportedly paid into Governor Fayose’s account by Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was not provided nor attached for the court to see.

    It described EFCC’s claim on the receipt of an intelligent report concerning money purportedly paid into Governor Fayose’s account by Obanikoro as mere speculation, saying; “the court does not embark on speculation.”

    The court also held that since the EFCC had admitted that N80 million had already been withdrawn from the accounts, saying that Chief Ozekhome was right to say that the cat had already been completed and an injunction cannot be granted for act already completed.

    Counsel to Fayose, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), who described the verdict as “another victory over tyranny” advised the EFCC to act within the rule of law in its operations.

    Ozekhome said the anti-graft agency will continue to lose cases it filed against suspects in courts until it divorces itself of selective justice and taking biased position in the politics of the country.

    He said: “This portrayed judiciary as the sentinel on the door of the poor, defenceless and oppressed. Governor Fayose and myself had again been vindicated that EFCC’s operations have not been based on law but on emotion.”

  • You had no right to invade The SUN, Ozekhome tells EFCC

    Human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), says the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission lacked the legal power to raid The SUN newspapers on Monday.

    Ozekhome said since The SUN had appealed against a court ruling granting the EFCC permission to seize the property, it was wrong of the commission to storm the place.

    The senior advocate said in a statement that the commission had turned itself into an instrument of oppression.

    He said after intimidating the legislature and the judiciary, the next step was for the EFCC to intimidate the media which is the watchdog of society.

    Ozekhome added, “I had like Nostradamus, predicted and warned a few months ago that after browbeating and messing up the legislature, cowering and intimidating the judiciary, the next port of call by the all-conquering executive will be the press, the 4th Estate of the realm.

    “Some people thought that I was being alarmist because that appeared too far-fetched. Now we are there. Going by the questions the recipients of this barbaric act of intimidation were said to have been asked at The SUN premises, the invasion is targeted at total clamp down on the Nigerian press towards unhindered press censorship.

    “How can a matter in which an appeal has been entered and both parties are already slugging it out at the Court of Appeal, ground levy of execution before judgement of the appellate court is finally delivered?

    “Such crude reprobate action suggests total descent to anarchy and unbridled dictatorship and totalitarianism.”

    The senior advocate said the raid of the media house was reminiscent of the days of military dictatorship.

    He called on the EFCC to immediately remove the siege from The SUN premises, return all seized items and embrace the path of honour and due process in carrying out its functions.