Ibori: Court Refuses to Admit Fawehinmi's Documents
From Lillian Okenwa in Abuja
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) handling the identification suit concerning Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, yesterday refused to admit two documents brought by Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), counsel to the appellant.
The first document was a court process Ibori allegedly filed at the Bwari Upper Area Court in his capacity as the Governor of Delta State on January 23, 2003.
In the said suit Ibori noted that though one James Onanefe Ibori was convicted, he was not the same person.
The court, after an objection raised by Chief Milton Paul Ohwovoriole (SAN), counsel to Ibori, refused the application on the premise that the document was not pleaded.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, the Police finally tendered a certified true copy (CTC) of the statement made by Judge Auwal Yusuf, who said he convicted Ibori at the Bwari Court.
After the CTC had been tendered, Ohwovoriole recalled that while giving evidence, Yusuf said he did not make the statement before the police under caution but when he was told to read his opening paragraph, it was noted that he actually made the statement under caution.
Fawehinmi then asked Yusuf to read the entire statement which was substantially the same with the evidence he gave in court.
The only contention was that in the statement he made on February 10, 2003 he said he advised "them" (Ibori and the people with him on the day he was invited) to file a suit at the Bwari Area Court for the purpose of "identifying" which James Onanefe Ibori was convicted.
But in his evidence in court he used the word "clarifying," a difference Ibori's counsel said was inconsistent.
It was after he had read the statement that Fawehinmi sought to tender documents relating to the suit allegedly filed at the Bwari Court. According to him, the document is clearly related to the case having been mentioned during evidence-in-chief and during cross-examination.
He insisted that there was need for the document to be tendered before the open court since it throws more light on the suit Ibori was said to have instructed Barrister Bala Ngilari to file at the Bwari Upper Area Court.
The court, however, held that parties are bound by their pleadings and since the document was not pleaded, it would not be admitted.
Again Fawehimmi wanted to tender the proceedings of the Bwari Court on September 28, 1995 and obtained on December 23, 2004 but Ohwovoriole objected.
The respondent counsel's argument was that it is already contained in the bunch submitted at the Supreme Court, saying there was no need to tender a different one before the High Court again.
The Court agreed with him. Ruling on the issue, Justice Husseini Mukhtar said if there was need to refer to the said document, it could be taken from the one that went up to the Supreme Court.
Subsequently, Fawehinmi said he was ready to take on his witnesses beginning with the Chief Judge (CJ) of the Federal Capital, Justice Lawal Gumi, who had been issued a subpoena but was not in court.
Subpoenas, according to Fawehinmi, have been served on Ibori, the Director General of State Security Service (SSS), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Population Commis-sion (NPC) and the CJ, FCT but that of the lot, only Ibori seemed reluctant to appear.
The CJ is expected to come and tender the reports he wrote on the conviction saga and answer some questions.
However, Ibori's counsel objected to any of the witnesses appearing as he argued that until the court determined what they were coming to do and whether their testimonies would be relevant they should not be allowed to testify.
At the end of the day the court asked both counsel to address it on Monday July 16, on the process of inviting a witness to testify before a Court.
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