Home2023 Elections#Breaking! Court Orders Keyamo To Pay N10m To Atiku, ICPC For Frivolous...

#Breaking! Court Orders Keyamo To Pay N10m To Atiku, ICPC For Frivolous Suit

A Federal High Court, Abuja on Mon­day, awarded a N10 million fine against Festus Keyamo, former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, for filing a frivolous suit against Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Par­ty’s (PDP) presidential candidate in the February 25 election.

Justice James Omotosho, in a rul­ing, awarded a N5 million fine each in favour of Abubakar and the Inde­pendent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), making a N10 million against Keyamo.

Justice Omotosho, who de­scribed the suit as “frivolous, vexatious and abuse of court processes,” directed that the fine should be paid “at 10 percent per annum until the cost is finally liquidated.”

The order followed an oral application by counsel for Ati­ku, Benson Igbanoi, and that of the ICPC, Oluwakemi Odogun, asking for cost after the matter was dismissed.

Keyamo, who was also the spokesperson of the dissolved Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), had filed the suit marked: FHC/ ABJ/CS/84/2023 on January 20.

In the application, he had sought an order compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to probe and pros­ecute Abubakar.

Keyamo based his action on the ground of claims by one of Abubakar’s aides, Michael Achimugu, that between 1999 and 2007 when he was vice pres­ident, he (Achimugu) conspired with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to rip off the country using what he termed ‘Special Purpose Vehicles.’

The ex-minister filed the suit after the 72-hour ultimatum he gave the three investigating agencies elapsed.
He alleged that Abubakar was in violation of Section 18(2) of the Money Laundering (Pre­vention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and Section 96(1) of the Penal Code, hence, unqualified to contest in February 25 poll.

But Atiku (1st defendant), through his lawyer, filed a notice of preliminary objection, seek­ing for an order dismissing the suit for being incompetent, lack of locus standi, want of jurisdic­tion and for non-disclosure of reasonable cause against him.

The EFCC, ICPC and the CCB, in their separate prelimi­nary objections, also challenged the competency of the suit and jurisdiction of the court.

Delivering the ruling, Jus­tice Omotosho held that he had two issues for determination and that was whether the suit was frivolous and whether the relief sought by Keyamo could be granted.

The judge, who said the ju­risdiction of the court would be determined, also said that the locus standi of the applicant would also be looked into.

“Locus standi is the capacity of a party to institute an action. It interrogates what is the busi­ness of the plaintiff with the defendants.

“The need for proper locus standi is to prevent busy body from instituting a suit and re­straining them from wasting the time of the court,” he said.

He said though the court did not say that the ex-minister did not have a right to write stat­utory agencies to investigate Abubakar, but that he had not shown why he was affected by Abubakar’s action.

“A citizen of a country has a right to report crime and that cannot be an infraction on fun­damental rights of any person.

“But the complainant is to complain to the statutory agencies and not to drag the 1st defendant with the agencies to court to seek an order to compel the agencies to investigate the suspect,” he said.

Justice Omotosho held that investigating authorities had the discretionary powers to in­vestigate any case and to know if such case would warrant any prosecution or not, citing previ­ous cases to back his decision.

“The law is that the court cannot compel investigating agencies to perform their dis­cretionary powers,” he said.

The judge, who read Keya­mo’s letter wherein he gave the investigating agencies 72-hour ultimatum to investigate Abu­bakar, said the Court of Appeal in one of its decisions, cautioned public officers against abuse of powers.

He said that it was unheard of that a citizen would give stat­utory agencies 72-hour to inves­tigate and prosecute an alleged offence.

“And immediately after the 72 hours, an action was filed.

“The question is, is 72 hours sufficient for the investigation and conclusion of action of this nature. The answer is no,” he said.

Omotosho, who said that Keyamo did not even give a rea­sonable time for the statutory bodies to act before filing the suit, said: “This means that the action was filed in bad faith.”

He said the case was frivolous and an abuse of court process.

“The plaintiff who is sup­posed to be a lawyer would think that a suit compelling a statuto­ry body will succeed giving 72 hours?

“The plaintiff should know that these agencies are at liber­ty on when to investigate and when to conclude,” he said.

He said Keyamo acted as if he was “an errand boy.”

He said it was high time pub­lic officers knew that statutory agencies should not be used to settle political discord.

The judge, therefore, com­mended the EFCC, ICPC and the CCB for refusing to act in a way that would suggest that Keyamo was giving them directive.

“The plaintiff should know that such suit will not succeed,” he said.

Omotosho, who described the suit as frivolous, vexatious and abuse of court process, con­sequently dismissed the suit.

Shortly after the ruling, ICPC’s lawyer, Odogun, asked for a N30 million fine in favour of his client.

She argued that the ICPC had been diligent in defending the matter and that time and resources had been wasted.

Also, Abubakar’s lawyer, Mr. Igbanoi, prayed the court for a N200 million fine against Key­amo, considering that his client was former vice president and presidential candidate in the last election.

But Keyamo’s counsel, O. C. Uju, disagreed with the two law­yers asking the court to dismiss their application for a cost.

The judge, however, awarded a N5 million fine each in favour of Abubakar and ICPC.

Meanwhile, Keyamo has vowed to seek redress at the Court of Appeal, following the dismissal of a suit he filed against the presidential candi­date of the PDP in the February 25, 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar.

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