Judge upholds contempt charge against Ogboru
Friday, July 5, 2013
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A Judge of
the Federal High Court, Lagos, Okon Abang, on Friday refused to vacate his
earlier ruling which found former Democratic Peoples Parties (DPP) Governorship
candidate in Delta State, Chief Ovadje Ogboru, guilty of contempt for disobeying court
order.
Nelson
Imoh, counsel to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) urged the judge to set aside
the order since parties had agreed to reconcile.
Their
terms of agreement states among others, that parties must withdraw all pending
suits including AMCON’s fresh contempt suit and desist from filling further
suits.
Mr. Abang
did not only refuse to revoke his ruling, but also directed Ogboru to proceed
to the appellate court as an option.
Mr. Abang
said that an agreement between the parties in the suit to settle the dispute
between them was not enough to discharge the order.
“As a
person, I would have loved to set aside the order but sitting as a court, my
hands are tied. The court has become functus officio and thus is no longer able
to discharge the order.
“It is my
humble view that it is only the Court of Appeal that can vacate the said
findings. I have no jurisdiction to vacate the findings of the court as it is
the function of the Court of Appeal to do so,” he stated.
It would
be recalled that Chief Ogboru was found guilty of flouting an order given by
the court last January in a suit filed by AMCON. The court had empowered AMCON
to take possession of some property belonging to Ogboru and his firm, Fiogret
Limited, for their inability to repay a N200 million loan granted them by
Ecobank Plc.
Ogboru and
others were accused of violating the order by breaking into the property
located at Ijora Causeway and Norman Williams Street, Ikoyi. Though they were
found guilty of contempt, the court said that it could not issue a bench
warrant for Ogboru’s arrest because AMCON failed to comply with the provisions
of the law in commencing the contempt proceedings.
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