Recall of Justice Ademola, others premature- FG insists

The war of words between the Federal government and the National Judicial Council, NJC continued on Monday with the federal government describing the decision of the NJC to recall Justice Ademola and five other suspended judges, ” ill-timed and premature.”

The Federal government was reacting to the statement by the NJC over the weekend explaining the rationale behind the decision to recall the suspended Judges.

Reacting to the NJC’s statement on Monday, the special adviser to President Buhari on prosecutions, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, said that the NJC, “in his haste to defend the indefensible, muddled up the law concerning the role of an appellant and the registry of the Court where an appeal is emanating from”.

Obono-Obla, while denying the claim that the Federal Ministry of Justice was served with invitations for records settlement twice and refused to attend, said that going by the relevant rules, failure of an appellant to attend such session had no bearing on the competence of the appeal.

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“Undoubtedly, the statement of Soji Oye is a deliberate misrepresentation of the law and facts”, he said.

“On the contrary, the FCT High Court registry by a Notice dated 6 June 2017 signed by one Paul A. Edili, Esquire (Head of Appeal) invited both parties to the appeal to attend Court on the 14 June 2017 for the purpose reconciliation of records of appeal.

“It goes without saying that the assertion of Soji Oye that the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation had on two occasions viz, April 18, 2017, and April 21, 2017, respectively shunned the invitation of the FCT High Court registry is not correct.

“I challenge Soji Oye to furnish us with proof of service of these notices which the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation shunned.
It is obvious that Soji Oye and the NJC in their haste to defend the indefensible muddled up the law concerning the role of an Appellant and the registry of the Court where an appeal is emanating from.”

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Obla equally debunked the NJC’s claim that failure by the AGF office to settle the records of appeal within 45 days implied that the notice of appeal was no longer valid.