The former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who went to court early this year to challenge his last December dismissal from the police, got a hefty approval Friday July 3 in the Abuja Federal High Court of Justice Mustapha Abdullahi that he is on the right track.
Justice Abdullahi held that the law requiring serving officers to first seek and secure the consent of the Police high command before suing their bosses negated the principles of natural justice. Any officer who wished to sue the Inspector General of Police has the right to do so the judge declared in his ruling.
Ribadu faced a number of huddles going into the case: his decision to drag the Police Service Commission (PSC), the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), and the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) before the court challenging his dismissal from the force was contrary to the stipulations of the Police Act which states that an aggrieved officers must give a month notice before they could institute legal action against the authority. The police had also raised a preliminary objection to Ribadu's suit insisting that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the case in the first place.
However, among the three issues addressed by the judge, he resolved two in favour of Ribadu and one in favour of the defendants.
To Ribadu's favor, the judge ruled that Ribadu had the locus standi to institute the action against the police; and that the expectation that Ribadu sought permission of the police authority before instituting the suit was illogical since he would be seeking permission from the same person who wronged him in the first place.
Since the police authorities, in challenging Ribadu, had argued that the former EFCC boss, by the action he filed was an abuse of court process, the judge also ruled that this was not true. Ribadu's actions were true and proper to the traditions of the court, said the Judge.
But it was not a straight walk over for Ribadu, as the court ruled against the procedure he adopted in filing the suit. In the judge's views, he should have filed the suit by way of writ of summons instead of the originating summon he adopted.
Justice Abdullahi, in his ruling said it was wrong for Ribadu to have approached it by a way of originating summon as it was also wrong for the police to ask that the case be struck out. He ordered that the proceeding be converted to writ of summon and asked the Ribadu's lawyer to file the writ of summon within 7 days. The case was adjourned till July 27.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
I WAS FORCED BY DANIEL
Honourable Wale Alausa, has said that he was forced by His Excellency Governor Gbenga Daniel to take the oath in 2007, contrary to the report in the Nigerian Compass News paper.
Reacting to the story, “Ogun 15 lawmakers on blood oath,” Hon. Alausa said it was a fabrication aimed at ridiculing his person and his colleagues in the house by Daniel and his agents. He confessed that the photographs published by Compass, were genuine but were taken in 2007, inside Daniel's Sagamu mansion and its environs, when he was forced to take an oath before he could get the PDP ticket to the state House of Assembly.
The lawmaker said he and his colleagues (G15) never took any oath and neither did they visit any shrine in Ijebu-Igbo to take an oath, adding that it was pure blackmail by Daniel to stop the House from carrying out its oversight functions. “The photographs on the front page of Compass, were truly mine but the story was fabricated. I was forced to take the photographs in governor Daniel's Sagamu home in 2007, when he forcefully implemented the oath on me in order to get me a ticket to the House of Assembly. And that is what he has done to everybody.
“Let him come out and deny, if he did not compel my father, Chief Agboola Alausa, to persuade me to take the oath. I rest my case for now. But the struggle continues,” he said. According to Compass: “the crisis in Ogun state involving the G 15 members of the House of Assembly was triggered by a blood oath taken at a shrine in Ijebu-Igbo, Ijebu North Local Government, last year, the Nigerian Compass learnt last night.
“The members took the oath to ensure a united front against governor Gbenga Daniel. The oath was sponsored by some politicians including the father of a prominent politician in Abuja, a Senator, a former South-West governor, a former minister and another prominent politician in Ogun state.” The report added that: “the oath, which was taken naked by the members and in daylight, was witnessed by the sponsors and the native doctors, the administrators of the oath.
“Items used for the oath included blood, cow heads, calabash and other fetish materials. Each participant swore to upholding opposition to Daniel at all times and submitted to the death of their first born, should they renege on the oath. “Each of them was required to mention the name of their first child in the course of the oath, setting in motion serious consequences for the children should their fathers go back on the prescribed course of opposition.
“The Nigerian Compass learnt that the finality of this oath is why prominent traditional rulers, such as the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona; the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo; the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Michael Sonariwo, and other prominent leaders such as Prince Bola Ajibola, General Tunji Olurin and Yeye Oodua H.I.D. Awolowo were unable to persuade them to change their stance.” Culled from PM News
Friday, July 3, 2009
Hon. Wale Alausa Nude Oath, Ogun State House Reacts
The leadership of the Ogun State House of Assembly has dared Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who they identified as the sole proprietor of the Compass Newspaper that published an obscene picture of one of them to go ahead and publish more.
The newspaper last Monday published a nude picture of Hon. Wale Alausa where it was alleged that the member representing Ijebu-Ode State Constituency was involved in blood oath.
The newspaper also threatened to publish more of such messy pictures about the lawmakers who appeared to be against Governor Daniel’s administration in its subsequent editions.
Addressing a press conference at the Committee Room on Tuesday after a solidarity rally with Alausa who had earlier addressed a press conference in Lagos, the Speaker of the House, Hon. Tunji Egbetokun, described the development as unfortunate, messy and stinking.
“He (Daniel) caused the photograph to be published because he’s the owner of the paper. Let him publish other ones if he has them. The whole things is unfortunate, messy and stinking which I know he would be regretting by now.
“How could you publish such a photograph of a honourable member from the same party with you in your newspaper? He had acted on a bad advice of some people who surround him.
“Let him go ahead to publish more, but I know he does not have the pictures of any one of us here. If he has my own, let him publish it through all manners of publication anywhere and I can assure him I will not go to court.
“Why are they threatening us that they have more of such pictures. They did not tell us they had Hon. Alausa’s picture before they did what they did. Let me tell you if they had any more of such pictures, they would have posted that of Hon. Remi Hassan because he’s a pastor. That would have been more marketable for them than anybody else.”
Egbetokun, who was the immediate past secretary to the Obafemi-Owode Local Government also admitted that he once took oath of allegiance at the instance of Governor Daniel before the 2007 election.
“Yes, I once took oath of allegiance to Governor Daniel, that was during the 2007 election but I was not naked. It was right at his house in Sagamu.”
Egbetokun, who spoke in the presence of the G.15 member excluding Alausa, who though was within the Assembly complex but was attending to some people from his constituency listed some of the names of those that took the oath with him. Egbetokun, who said the House would investigate and take proper action on the Alausa’s saga also alleged that 80 percent of office holders are spiritualists.
Meanwhile, elders of the ruling Peopls Democratic Party (PDP) in Imeko-Afon Local Government Area of the state have described the allegation by Alausa as “mother of all deceptions”.
The Chairman of the forum, Chief Sina Adejobi described Alausa as a devilish man. “His admission that the photograph published in Monday’s edition of Nigerian Compass where he appeared naked while taking the blood oath had shown that he belongs to the kingdom of darkness. He should kneel down before God and pray for forgiveness otherwise, the wrath of God will be kindled upon him.”
The newspaper last Monday published a nude picture of Hon. Wale Alausa where it was alleged that the member representing Ijebu-Ode State Constituency was involved in blood oath.
The newspaper also threatened to publish more of such messy pictures about the lawmakers who appeared to be against Governor Daniel’s administration in its subsequent editions.
Addressing a press conference at the Committee Room on Tuesday after a solidarity rally with Alausa who had earlier addressed a press conference in Lagos, the Speaker of the House, Hon. Tunji Egbetokun, described the development as unfortunate, messy and stinking.
“He (Daniel) caused the photograph to be published because he’s the owner of the paper. Let him publish other ones if he has them. The whole things is unfortunate, messy and stinking which I know he would be regretting by now.
“How could you publish such a photograph of a honourable member from the same party with you in your newspaper? He had acted on a bad advice of some people who surround him.
“Let him go ahead to publish more, but I know he does not have the pictures of any one of us here. If he has my own, let him publish it through all manners of publication anywhere and I can assure him I will not go to court.
“Why are they threatening us that they have more of such pictures. They did not tell us they had Hon. Alausa’s picture before they did what they did. Let me tell you if they had any more of such pictures, they would have posted that of Hon. Remi Hassan because he’s a pastor. That would have been more marketable for them than anybody else.”
Egbetokun, who was the immediate past secretary to the Obafemi-Owode Local Government also admitted that he once took oath of allegiance at the instance of Governor Daniel before the 2007 election.
“Yes, I once took oath of allegiance to Governor Daniel, that was during the 2007 election but I was not naked. It was right at his house in Sagamu.”
Egbetokun, who spoke in the presence of the G.15 member excluding Alausa, who though was within the Assembly complex but was attending to some people from his constituency listed some of the names of those that took the oath with him. Egbetokun, who said the House would investigate and take proper action on the Alausa’s saga also alleged that 80 percent of office holders are spiritualists.
Meanwhile, elders of the ruling Peopls Democratic Party (PDP) in Imeko-Afon Local Government Area of the state have described the allegation by Alausa as “mother of all deceptions”.
The Chairman of the forum, Chief Sina Adejobi described Alausa as a devilish man. “His admission that the photograph published in Monday’s edition of Nigerian Compass where he appeared naked while taking the blood oath had shown that he belongs to the kingdom of darkness. He should kneel down before God and pray for forgiveness otherwise, the wrath of God will be kindled upon him.”
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