By Deborah Onyofufeke
A Federal High Court in Abuja has been ordered to dismiss the suit by former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Micheal Aondoakaa SAN, seeking a review of the Supreme Court judgment which barred him from holding public office for life.
Hon. Emmanuel Obot, a former House of Representatives member and a defendant in the suit said that Aondoakaa’s new suit was not only funny but strange in law.
Uwemedimo Nwoko SAN, in a preliminary objection filed by Obot, stated that the former AGF’S suit is a dangerous invitation, capable of knocking the head of the high court against that of the Supreme Court.
He added that the suit is challenging the competence of the high court to review and set aside, the judgment of the Supreme Court as being sought by the former AGF.
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 with this, the senior lawyer asked the high court to decline the invitation, refuse to review the apex court judgment and dismiss the suit.
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa SAN, had in his new suit, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside a Supreme Court judgment which banned him from holding public office for life as he claimed that two of the assertion made against him in the affidavit, in support of the suit by Obo, which led to the apex court action against him, were not correct and should be used to void the Supreme Court decision against him.
The Supreme Court verdict, which made the pronouncement against 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 for his professional misconduct and abuse of office, he was also ordered to pay a sum of N2M to his victim, Hon. Emmanuel Bassey Obot.
Aondoakaa got the cold shoulder from the Supreme Court for abuse of power, after the series of letters he wrote, demanding some government agencies not to obey a court judgment that declared Emmanuel Obot as a duly elected House of Representatives member for Akwa Ibom state.
He also wrote a letter as the AGF to the former House of Assembly Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, to disregard court orders to inaugurate Obot after the court victory.
The former AGF, 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.
This led the Supreme Court, in its judgment, where it also directed the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA), to take further punitive action against the ex-Minister of Justice, who served during the late Umar Musa Yar’Adua administration.
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Aondoakaa, who is presently a governorship aspirant, filed a fresh suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja, praying it to review and set aside the judgment of the Supreme Court against him, while he stated that the judgment against him was obtained by fraud by Obot.
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.
Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed has fixed May 12 for hearing of objection against Aondoakaa’s new suit.
