By Gbenga Ojo, June 25, 2020, news/comments.
ABUJA-A Federal High Court Sitting in Abuja, today, dismissed a suit seeking for an order to remove Senator Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the Deputy Senate President from the Upper Chamber, on an allegation of being convicted in the United State of America. Dismissing the suit in a lead Judgment is Justice Ahmed Mohammed, who said that the Plaintiff has constituted and abused court processes, and ought to have immediately withdrawn the suit on realising that a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, a court with coordinate jurisdiction with the Federal High Court, had already decided the issue in the suit.
However, the Judge upheld the preliminary objection filed by the other four respondents, which include, Sen. Omo-Agege, the Clerk of the National Assembly, his party, the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission. He held that it is manifestly clear from the judgment alluded to that there was no convicted as alleged.
His words “In the light of the above, the Plaintiff is bound by the judgment of my brother, Justice O.A Musa of the FCT High Court delivered on January 29, 2020, wherein it was declared that the defendant was not convicted. “It is precisely the intention of this suit to relitigate the issue already laid to rest by the judgment of the FCT High Court.” By refusing to take an immediate step of withdrawing the suit on being aware of the FCT High Court judgment, the plaintiff “lends credence to the contention of the counsel for the first defendant that the suit was filed in obvious attempt to annoy and irritate the first defendant.”
The Judge therefore noted that the suit is truncated at this point by dismissing without the need to consider other issues and award a punitive cost of N1.2m awarded against the plaintiff and its lawyer, Mr Edward Omaga, and ordered that the plaintiff and its lawyer must pay the sum of N300,000 to each of the four respondents – Omo-Agege, the Clerk of the National Assembly, APC, and INEC.
It be recalled that a civil society Organisation known as Empowerment for Unemployed Youth Initiative, instituted a legal suit, alleging crime conviction of Senator Omo-Agege in the United State of America.
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DSP, Omo-Agege
