By Olalekan Awojodu, Abuja.
A former member of the House of Representatives, Emmanuel Obot has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit filed by former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Micheal Aondoakaa SAN seeking a review of Supreme Court judgment which barred him from holding public office for life.
Obot, a former representative from Akwa Ibom State claimed that Aondoakaa’s new suit was not only funny but strange in law.
In a preliminary objection filed on his behalf by a former Attorney General of Akwa Ibom State, Uwemedimo Nwoko SAN, the 1st defendant is challenging the competence of a high court to review and set aside the judgment of the Supreme Court as being sought by the former AGF.
Among others, Nwoko on behalf of his client claimed in a counter affidavit that the high court lacked jurisdiction to sit as an appellate court in a decision already concluded by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The senior lawyer further said that the fresh suit of the former Minister of Justice amounted to a dangerous invitation capable of knocking the head of the high court against that of the Supreme Court.
Nwoko therefore asked the high court to decline the invitation, refuse to review the apex court judgment and dismiss the suit.
Aondoakaa in his new suit asked the court to set aside a Supreme Court judgment which banned him from holding public office for life.
The Supreme Court verdict which hammered him from holding public office for life was unanimously handed down against him by a five-man panel of Justices of the apex court on December 10, 2021.
Apart from being banned from public office holding for life due to professional misconduct and abuse of office, Aondoakaa was also ordered to pay a sum of N2 million to his victim, Hon. Emmanuel Bassey Obot.
Besides, the Supreme Court in the judgment, also directed the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to take further punitive action against the ex-Minister who served during the late Umar Musa Yar’Adua administration.
Aondoakaa incurred the wrath of the Supreme Court following series of letters he wrote asking some government’s agencies not to obey a court judgment that declared Obot as the duly elected House of Representatives member for Akwa Ibom state.
Among the people he wrote in his capacity as AGF to disregard court orders are a former Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole not to inaugurate Obot after the court victory.
Aondoakaa also wrote a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC Professor Maurice Iwu not to issue Certificate of Return to Obot as well as Court of Appeal President, not to set up a Tribunal Panel on the Election dispute in Akwa Ibom state.
However, in a dramatic turn, the embattled Aondoakaa filed a fresh suit in Abuja praying it to review and set aside the judgment of the Supreme Court against him. The grouse of the former Justice Minister who is currently a governorship aspirant, is that the judgment against him was obtained by fraud by Obot.
Aondoakaa claimed that two of the averments in the affidavit in support of the suit by Obot which led to the apex court action against him were not correct and should be used to void the Supreme Court decision against him.
Meanwhile, Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed has fixed May 12 for hearing of objection against Aondoakaa’s new suit.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun who delivered the lead judgment of the Supreme Court against Aondoakaa had upheld the high court and Court of Appeal findings that the former AGF abused his office and also engaged in professional misconduct in the letters he wrote out encouraging disobedience to lawful court orders.
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