The
lawyer standing for kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans, has
lost yet another case in court.
Evans’
counsel, Olukoya Ogungbeje, was defeated on Friday, when Justice Ibrahim Buba
of the Federal High Court in Lagos dismissed two fundamental rights
applications filed by him.
Ogungbeje
had reportedly filed the case on behalf of his clients, Messrs Chief Kenneth
Chukwuemeka Ajoku and Chidinma Ozurumba, against the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, but it was dismissed for lack of merit and for being
frivolous.
The judge also awarded a total cost of N500,000 against
the two petitioner
Other
respondents in Ajoku’s suit are a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Taiwo Kupolati,
Folorunsho Sholanke, Jide Olaleye, Abraham Ogunleye, Kolade Akinwunmi and Dr.
Ishaku Danladi Msheliza.
The
two petitioners, in suits marked FHC/L/CS/736/2017 and FHC/L/CS 803/2017, had
urged the court to declare that the arrest and detention by the operatives and
agents of EFCC on May 4, at the instigation of other respondents for taking up
the brief of his client and without cause, was “illegal, wrongful, unlawful,
and unconstitutional as it violates the applicant’s fundamental rights as
guaranteed under sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Responding
to the suits, the EFCC, in two separate counter-affidavits deposed to by
Ayodele Samuel and Makinde Adebayo, and argued before the court by Banjo James,
urged the judge to refuse the applicants’ applications for being frivolous and
lacking in merit.
Delivering
judgment on the two applications on Friday, Justice Buba, while dismissing the
two applications for lacking in merit and being frivolous, awarded a total cost
of N500,000 against the two applicants in favour of the EFCC and other
respondents.
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