Ibru: Lagos AG Wants Defence Counsel Held for Contempt
By Abimbola Akosile
An Ikeja High Court judge, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole was yesterday urged by the Attorney-General of Lagos State and Commissioner of Justice, Professor Yemi Osibajo, SAN, to hold Mr. Olalekan Ojo, counsel to Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, 3rd accused person in an ongoing attempted murder trial.
Osibajo, who alleged that Ojo made unacceptable utterances against the court also insisted that the five accused persons, standing trial for attempted murder of Mr. Alex Ibru, Publisher, The Guardian Newspapers were also petitioners against previous trial judge, Justice Ade Alabi (current Lagos Chief Judge) who they accused of collecting �10 million bribe. He said events later showed that they had lied in a bid to frustrate the trial and ensure no other judge was able to take the case.
In a 3-hour submission at the last adjourned date on July 23rd, Ojo had asked that Justice Oyewole make a pronouncement on his application challenging the correctness of court records on July 1, and asked if his client would be able to get a fair trial and hearing in Lagos State.
Osibajo said it was contemptous for Ojo to suggest whether a counsel can get justice or not from a particular court, either directly or indirectly.
"I am personally ashamed of some of the utterances of my learned counsel. I am entitled to say so. I am a Senior Counsel, and the administration of justice is my business. The position of the law is that under no circumstance or convention should counsel insult the court or denigrate the court. My learned counsel has over-stepped his bounds by going beyond conclusion that the court deliberately misrepresented facts. I have never heard it in my entire practice," he said.
According to him, "administration of justice has too much to lose by those kind of utterances. These are allegations of gross misconduct which should never be accepted in a court of law. This kind of conduct is unacceptable and must be depreciated. You can say anything you like about the prosecution but not about the court. This is not about the judge personally, but about the administration of justice which you represent. The court is entitled to hold instanta for contempt".
Osibajo, who opposed Ojo's application on two grounds, submitted that the court should not entertain the motion because it violates the principles of natural justice that a man should not be judged in his own court.
"I submit that in this case, this court cannot be judged in its own court. We submit that this court should decline to entertain this application because it goes against the principle of nemo judex. We argue in the alternative that there is no cogent basis whatsoever for the judicial finding of bias. The court will be acting as judge in its own court if it were to take that particular path," he said.
"Allegation of bias was made malafide, in bad faith, with the wrong intention. It is made stall this trial. We submit that the lies that were told against Justice Ade-Alabi and were found not to be so; we are faced with the same situation here where all manner of allegations are thrown against the judge so that no court would be able to successfully take the trial. They do not want the prosecutor either, they want to choose the prosecutor and their own judge", Osibajo added.
Ojo, in his response, had urged the court to disregard the prefactory statements of the Attorney-General on grounds that such statements were mere assumptions not supported by facts before the court, and that such statements were irrelevant to the issues in the constitution. The matter has been adjourned for further hearing.
Al-Mustapha, currently being held in an undisclosed location by Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) over allegations of breach of national security, is standing trial alongside former Army Chief, Lt. General Ishaya Bamaiyi (1st); James Dambaba, former Police Commissioner of Oyo and Lagos States (2nd); Colonel Jubrin Bala Yakubu (rtd.) former Military Administrator of Zamfara State (4th); and CSP Rabo Lawal, former Leader, Mopol Unit at Aso Rock Villa (5th).
The former CSO had earlier filed two reply affidavits to a counter-affidavit filed by State to his earlier application on the jurisdiction of Justice Oyewole to continue hearing the matter over allegations of bias against him.
He had filed the 47-paragraph affidavit of reply, and another 10-paragraph affidavit challenging the correctness of court proceedings relating to the application in court. He had alleged that the records of proceedings for July 1 did not show that Osibajo was allowed to use same counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the SSS on January 15, 2004.
The attempted murder case has been on since accused persons were first arraigned in 1999. The attempt on Ibru's life was made on February 4, 1995, in Lagos.
|
