The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, dismissed a suit seeking the
declaration of the Igbo social cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as
illegal organisation.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling, also rejected the call for the arrest,
probe and prosecution of the President General of the association, Prof
George Obiozor and other leaders of the group over alleged contempt.
Justice Ekwo held that the applicant; The Registered Trustees of
Ohanaeze Indigbo General Assembly, led by Barrister Onuorah Basil
Onyeachonam, failed to show that Obiozor and others committed any
offence known to law to warrant their arrest, investigation and
prosecution.
He said after a thorough evaluation of the processes filed by the
applicant he found that it failed to establish a prima facie case to
warrant the grant of the reliefs sought.
The Onyeachonam-led Ohanaeze Indigbo General Assembly had, in a suit
marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/56/2021 claimed that Obiozor and other leaders of the
Ohanaeze Indigbo, who emerged from the recently conducted election, were
in contempt by allegedly running an illegal organisation.
The applicant, in the suit which had the Inspector General of Police
(IGP) and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as respondents,
claimed that while it was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC), the group with a similar name, led by Obiozor and
others was unregistered.
It then filed an ex-parte application for leave to apply for the
issuance of an order of mandamus, compelling the IGP and the AGF “to
arrest, investigate and commence criminal proceedings” against Obiozor
and others for allegedly running an illegal and/or unregistered
association known as Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
The applicant said its resort to the court was because of the failure of
the respondents to act on its letters to them on Jan.15 for the arrest
and prosecution of Obiozor and others.
In the ruling on Friday, Justice Ekwo said: “The prayer here is for
leave to compel the first and second respondents (IGP and AGF) to
arrest, investigate and commence criminal proceedings against Prof.
George Obiozor, Obi Nwali, Okey Egbuche, Beatrice Eze, Bartholomew Okeke
and Ogbonna for running an illegal and/or unregistered association known
as Ohanaeze Ndigbo similar to that of the Applicant which has been
registered under Part C of the CAMA by the CAC.
“In my opinion, where such prayer is sought, it must be demonstrated
with concrete evidence that those sought to be arrested, investigated
and prosecuted have committed criminal offence(s) known to law.
“This is because the power given to the Attorney-General of the
Federation in Section 174 (1) of the 1999 Constitution and the power
given to the Inspector General of the Police in Section 4 of the Police
Act are to not intended to be used in vacuo or without a cause.
“The onus is on the applicant to show that the statute underlying their
allegation creates a criminal offence which the first and second
respondents are obligated to enforce by the power of arrest,
investigation and prosecution.
“In the end, I am unable to see any justifiable cause in this
application. I think this application, without more, is frivolous and I
am unable to lend the judicial powers of this court to encourage such
litigations.
“I make an order dismissing this case for lacking in merit. This is the
order of the court.”(NAN)