PRESS STATEMENT ON HON. LUCK ORIMISAN AIYEDATIWA’S IMPEACHMENT CASE.
My attention has been drawn to an online report by the Punch titled: “Court rejects Akeredolu, Lawmakers’ suit against Aiyedatiwa.”
Fortunately, the report mentioned the fact that I appeared in the matter as a Counsel. Reading the report makes me feel a little bit disturbed about what some bad eggs in journalism are turning the ordinarily noble profession into.
Firstly, contrary to the report, the Ondo State House of Assembly has never filed any case against the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa. It was the Deputy Governor who filed all the cases in court against the Ondo State House of Assembly, in an attempt to stop his impeachment. He filed one at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court on 21st September, 2023, with Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1294/2023. He filed another at the Ondo State High Court on 25th September, 2023, with Suit No. AK/348/2023. That was the case dismissed by the Ondo State High Court presided by Hon. Justice O Akintan Osadebay on 10th September, 2023, for constituting an abuse of judicial process, in view of the earlier and pending suit at the Federal High Court. He has appealed the judgment. Sequel to that, the Deputy Governor has also filed yet another suit by way of Counterclaim on 16th October, 2023 in the same Ondo State High Court, with No. AK/362/2023: Mr Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa (Counter-claimant) V. Ondo State Government and 4 others. The State House of Assembly, the Speaker of the House, and the Clerk to the House (my clients) are listed as the 2nd to 4th Defendants in the Counterclaim. Interestingly, and quite unprecedented in the history of litigation, the Deputy Governor sued the Chief Judge of Ondo State “for himself and all the Judges of Ondo State and High Court” as the 5th Defendant in the Counterclaim.
That was the case that came up before Hon. Justice D. I Kolawole of Ondo State High Court No. 4 yesterday, November 6, 2023. That is the case the Punch purported to be reporting in its bizarre and misleading headline. Ironically, the body of the story itself clearly contradicts the tendencious headline.
How can the Court in this context “reject …Lawmaker’s Suit against Aiyedatiwa” when it was actually Aiyedatiwa who filed the case against the Lawmakers?
In one breathe, the report says the Claimants in the case sought to withdraw the case on the ground that it had been overtaken by events, and that the Counsel to the Deputy Governor opposed the withdrawal, but the Court rejected the argument of the Deputy Governor’s Counsel and held that it was the right of the Claimant to withdraw the case. In another breathe, the same report claims that the Court rejects the case by the Governor and Lawmakers against Aiyedatiwa. Where does this lead any sane reader?
By the way, that is a trivial issue. The much more serious issue in the seemingly compromised report is the aspect relating to an application made by Counsel to the Deputy Governor, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN, for the Court to grant an order for the parties to maintain the status quo in the impeachment proceedings, which the report is gracious enough to state that I opposed as the Counsel to the State House of Assembly. The substance of our opposition to the motion, which actually dominated the proceedings in the Court and has been widely reported by other sections of the media, was ‘expunged’ from the Punch online report.
We opposed the application for injunction by the Learned Silk on the basis that having sued the Chief Judge of Ondo State “for himself and all the Judges and High Court of Ondo State” as the 5th Defendant in the matter, none of the High Court Judges, including Hon. Justice D. I Kolawole who presided over the proceedings, has the power to adjudicate the case, because it is an elementary principle of justice that no man can be a judge in his own case, as expressed in the Latin maxim “Nemo judex in causa sua.”
That prevented the Court from delving into the application for injunction. The Learned Silk sought for an adjournment to formally react to our objection, following which the case was adjourned till 23rd November, 2023.
The accurate report of the court proceedings has flooded other sections of the press.
One is therefore amazed by the tendencious, inacurate and seemingly compromised online report by the Punch. To us, that is not what the Punch is known for, and I hope this is just an isolated act, and not the beginning of a negative trend.
Femi Emmanuel Emodamori
Counsel to Ondo State House of Assembly)
7th November, 2023.
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