….As Court adjourns case till October 30
OUR RESPONSE TO THE COURT’S RULING DISMISSING THE ONDO STATE DEPUTY GOVERNOR’S APPLICATION FOR ADJOURNMENT IN ORDER TO ALLOW HIS PARTY (APC) PACIFY THE ONDO STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OVER HIS IMPEACHMENT
We are very optimistic that the case instituted at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High by the Ondo State Deputy Governor over his impeachment will soon be effectually determined.
The Court started today’s proceedings by delivering a succinct ruling dismissing the Deputy-Governor’s application to adjourn the case for his political party, the APC, to wade into the matter.
His lordship emphatically ruled that granting such adjournment would amount to descending into the political arena, and that the Court would rather proceed to take all the pending applications, particularly those touching on whether it has jurisdiction to even entertain the case in the first place.
The learned Counsel to the Deputy-Governor again requested for another adjournment on the ground that he needed more time to serve the Police and the DSS the replies to our preliminary objections which he had just filed this morning.
The DSS and the Police are listed as Defendants in the case, but they probably feel they have no reason to be in a case over Impeachment. Consequently, they have never appeared in the case.
We were ready for the case.All the other defence counsel indicated that they were ready. It was only the Deputy Governor’s Counsel that was clearly not ready. So, His lordship decided to adjourn the case till 30th October, 2023 for hearing, with a very clear directive that all the parties must serve and/or file whatever documents they intended to serve or file before that day.The Court emphatically restated that it would hear the case on the next date.
It is our honest believe that the 2 weeks given to the parties to serve all their processes and/or file all the documents they need to file is fair enough. On our part, we have filed all our processes on 10th October, 2023, just a day after the Plaintiff served us his originating summons and other processes in the open Court.
The clear directive of the Court today shows that there is end to to all delay tactics and escapist approaches in litigation. I am sure we will soon put this case behind us. I am also happy that the whole world are now convinced that our clients are patiently following due process in the impeachment process, which would certainly be carried through to a logical conclusion very soon.
E-signed
Femi Emmanuel Emodamori. (Ondo Assembly’s lawyer)
(16th October, 2023)
