The Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, has asked the Court
of Appeal to quash the arrest order issued against him by the Federal High
Court in Abuja on alleged disobedience to court orders.
Yakubu stormed the Appeal Court
and challenged the arrest order issued against him on Wednesday by Justice
Stephen Pam, less than 24 hours the arrest order was made.
In a notice of appeal he filed
through his lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, the INEC chief claimed
that Justice Pam acted in bad faith in the issuance of the arrest order because
he had already filed a pending appeal against the order and the attention of
the judge drawn to the appeal.
Among others, Yakubu claimed that
up till date, no order was enrolled and served on him for his personal
appearance in court as required by law.
He averred that the warrant of
arrest against him was a nullity because none of the parties in the contempt
case applied for issuance of bench warrant except the judge who did so on his
own.
The INEC chief maintained that he
had not disobeyed any court order because he was not present before the court
when the alleged order directing his personal presence was made and that
Justice Pam who issued the order has no jurisdiction to punish him for the
alleged disobedience of court order committed ex-facie curie (outside the
court).
Yakubu in the notice of appeal
predicated on five grounds claimed that the Federal High Court Judge was wrong
to be a judge of his own order allegedly not obeyed outside the face of the
court.
He maintained that he was no
longer a contemnor at the Federal High Court under the strength of his appeal
lodged at the Court of Appeal challenging the justification of the contempt
charge against him.
Besides, Yakubu asserted that
Justice Pam committed a grave miscarriage of justice when he unilaterally
struck out a motion on notice he filed on July 31 praying his court to adjourn
the contempt charge against him pending the determination of his appeal on the
contempt charge at the Court of Appeal.
He insisted that the trial court
breached section 36 of the 1999 constitution by striking out his motion without
hearing it, thereby denying him his right to fair hearing in the determination
on merit of his application.
He, therefore, prayed the Court
of Appeal for an order setting aside the entire ruling of Justice Pam delivered
on August 1, during which a bench warrant for his arrest was issued.
Yakubu also prayed for an order
of the appellate court remitting the contempt charge marked FHC/ABJ/CS/854/2015
back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to another
judge of the court for hearing and determination of the matter, on the grounds
that Justice Pam had exhibited patent bias against him in his handling of the
matter.
Respondents in the notice of
appeal are Ejike Oguebego and Chuks Okoye, Chairman and legal adviser
respectively of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Anambra State, who
instituted the contempt charge for themselves and on behalf of other members of
the Executive Committee of the party in the state.
Justice Pam had on Wednesday
issued a bench warrant against the INEC chief following his failure to appear
before the court on three occasions to defend himself in the contempt charge
brought against him by the Anambra State PDP.
Specifically, Yakubu was dragged
before the Federal High Court for disregarding the judgment of the Supreme
Court delivered in 2014 which ordered INEC to recognized Ejike Oguebego-led
executive as the authentic leadership of PDP in Anambra State.
No date has yet been fixed for
hearing of the appeal.
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com