Justice Keziah Ogbonnaya of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, on Monday, refused to recuse herself from a libel suit filed by a former Nigerian foreign affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama.
In the said suit, Onyeama claimed that a career ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lillian Onoh, who is also a sister to his former wife, for libel, allegedly defamed him in a series of memos she sent to him while he was the minister.
But in the middle of the proceedings, Mrs. Onoh accused the trial judge of bias against her and urged her to hand off the case and return the case file to the Chief Judge for reassignment to another judge.
When the matter resumed on Monday, counsel to Mrs Onoh, Richard Aneke, asked the judge to recuse herself from the case based on his client’s instruction.
Aneke drew Justice Ogbonnaya’s attention to a pending petition before the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, seeking a reassignment of the case to another judge.
Ms Onoh also petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC), asking it to carry out disciplinary against the judge for being overtly partial in her handling of the suit.
Mrs Onoh’s grouse with the judge is that she hails from Enugu State, where Mr Onyeama comes from.
The defendant also argued that the claimant had hatched a plan with the judge to rob her of justice.
But in her ruling on Monday, Justice Ogbonnaya said she was assigned the suit by the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Hussein Baba-Yusuf.
The defendant had accused Mr. Onyeama of influencing the transfer of the case from Eleojo Enenche to Justice Ogbonnaya, to get a favourable decision.
“No judge assigns cases himself, it is the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court that assigns cases. It is the same Chief Judge that tells a judge to stop hearing a particular case.
“Unless and until the Chief Judge sends a copy of the petition to me for response, this case will go on.
“Since the Chief Judge has not ordered for the reassignment of this case, this matter shall continue in this court. That is the order of this court,” Justice Ogbonnaya explained.
Acknowledging the presence of journalists at the proceedings, the judge advised Mr Aneke and “emissaries in the courtroom” to convey the court’s order to Ms Onoh.
“The emissaries take this message to her that this court has ordered that this matter shall go on and this judge will not recuse herself. She did not assign the case to me. This matter shall continue to go,” Justice Ogbonnaya said.
Onyeama’s lawyer expresses shock over petition
Mr Onyeama who served in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime for nearly eight years attended Monday’s proceedings.
His lawyer, Agada Elachi, expressed surprise at Ms Onoh’s allegation of bias against the judge.
“I am shocked to hear this from the defense lawyer. It is within counsel’s right to say what he has said, but the purported petition in its entirety is based on hearsay,” Mr Elachi, a SeniorAdvocate of Nigeria (SAN) said.
He said the defendant had never witnessed the judge conduct proceedings in the case.
“She has never had any opportunity of witnessing my lord conduct proceedings to show that this court is biased.”
Mr Elachi argued that there was no legal basis for Justice Ogbonnaya to recuse herself from continuing to hear the case.
He further contended that Ms Onoh’s petition was “a ploy to frustrate the hearing of this matter.”
While acknowledging that it was within the Chief Judge’s purview to consider the petition, Mr Elachi contended that “there is no law that requires my lord to stop proceedings in this matter.
“We urge the court to continue with the proceedings pending when the truth of this petition will be unravelled,” Elachi said.
Monday’s hearing was earlier fixed for the adoption of final written addresses, signalling the end of the suit before judgement is handed down.
But the defence lawyer informed the court of pending requests bothering on extension of time to file Ms Onoh’s defence statement out of time and to allow her testify before the judge via Zoom.
Thereafter, Mr Aneke said he could no longer continue with the case because of Ms Ogbonnaya’s refusal to withdraw from the matter.
Subsequently, the judge asked Mr Aneke if he was abandoning his client’s pending applications, which he said no.
“I have my client’s instruction not to proceed with the case, should my lord refuse to recuse herself from the matter. Regarding the motions, I am not abandoning my motions,” Mr Aneke said.
In his response to the issue, Mr Elachi, prayed the court to dismiss the applications on account of Mr Aneke’s intention to withdraw from the case.
In another short ruling, Justice Ogbonnaya said the “pending motions are deemed to have been moved” by Mr Aneke despite his fierce objection to the judge’s continued handling of the case.
“It is the view of this court that since the motions are before the court, the court deems them moved by the 1st defendant’s counsel,” the judge said.
The judge went to reject Mr Aneke’s request for an adjournment to enable him confer with Ms Onoh concerning the application for recusal which the judge declined.
Mr Elachi had sought a N50,000 fine against Mr Aneke for seeking an adjournment.
He said he would only agree for an adjournment if the judge adjourned until Thursday, December 14, which the judge reversed herself, and adjourned the case.
