NIGERIA: Justice Gladys Olotu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, sacked today by the
National Judicial Council pressed ahead with her libel case against Leaders and
Company Ltd, publishers of ThisDay Newspapers Ltd.
The case came before an Edo State High Court, with the woman claiming the sum
of N2 billion over an alleged libelous publication.
The said publication with the headline, “EFCC probes seven judges for
corruption,” appeared in its Wednesday, 13 November, 2012 edition with the
plaintiff mentioned among the those probed.
According to the publication, Justice Olotu was alleged to have been
investigated for owning several bank accounts in several local banks and in the
United Kingdom as well as significant stock in various companies. She was also
reported to have owned property in Abuja, Lagos and Benin.
Solicitors to Justice Olotu, Alfred Eghobamien, SAN, told the Court that he
wrote ThisDay on the 20 November, 2013 over the publication which he claimed
portrayed his client as “a criminal who acquired illegal wealth from unexplained
sources.
Witness to the claimant, Kolawole Shola Okeanya-Inneh, SAN, who appeared in
the dock, told the Court that “as the leader of the Bar in the South-South, I
had earlier recommended the claimant to be elevated to the Court of Appeal in
this country because of her outstanding judicial qualities but since I read the
defendant’s newspapers publication about the claimant, I have changed my mind
about her.
“I am ashamed that the claimant who I held in high esteem could degenerate
and get involved in such financial corruption. The claimant had lost face with
me and I now keep my distance from her.
“Than I called the claimant immediately and in very stern words, informed her
of the huge embarrassment her involvement in the said financial judicial
corruption has occasioned to me, her family, the Bar and the Bench at
large.”
The claimant who was also docked, told the Court that the said publication is
not only untrue but a well orchestrated plan to harmfully malign and hurtfully
libel her before the members of the public and humiliate her, adding that it has
caused her unquantifiable damage and also loss of good will and destruction of
reputation.
While demanding for the payment of two billion naira damages, she also asked
for a withdrawal of the libelous publication and an apology to be given a
prominent place on the front page of seven widely read newspapers including
ThisDay and on the Internet.
However, in the absence of the defendant, the Judge, Justice V.O. Eboreime
adjourned the case till 24 March 2014, hoping that the defendants would have
filed in their statement of defense.
Justice Olotu was sacked today for gross misconduct by the National Judicial
Council, NJC, the apex disciplinary body for the Nigerian judiciary, under the
leadership of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Aloma Mariam
Mukhtar.
The other judge sacked with her was Justice U. A Inyang of the FCT High
Court, also in Abuja. The NJC recommended their compulsory retirement from
office.
The Council observed that following allegations contained in a petition
against Justice Olotu, that it found that she failed to deliver Judgment in a
case at the appropriate time only to deliver it eighteen months after the
adoption of final address by all the counsel in the suit. This is contrary to
the constitutional provisions that judgments should be delivered within a period
of 90 days.
Three other judges were also cautioned by the NJC.
Source: PM News
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