Lawyer to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi,
\nhas written the Chairman of the Ekiti State Judicial Commission of
\nInquiry, Justice Silas Bamidele Oyewole (rtd), citing the pendency of a
\nsuit instituted by the former Ekiti State Governor, challenging the
\nlegality and constitutionality of the commission, for his inability to
\nappear before it.<\/p>\n
Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN; counsel to the Minister, in the letter dated
\nAugust 24th, 2017, titled \u201c Contempt of Court: Sitting of Judicial
\nCommission of Inquiry\u201d, said the decision of the panel to go ahead with
\nthe sitting and summoning Dr Fayemi to appear before it, in spite of the
\npendency of the suit no HAD\/57\/2017 at the Ado-Ekiti High Court, amounted
\nto contempt of court, which is redressible by an order of committal to
\nprison.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the light of the pending case including our client\u2019s motion for
\ninterlocutory injunction, Your Lordship is under clear duty to stay action
\non the activities of your commission until the pending case is determined.
\nTo do otherwise is to commit contempt of court which is redressible by an
\norder of committal to prison\u201d , Chief Olujinmi, a senior advocate of
\nNigeria, stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope in the light of the forgoing, it will not be rendered necessary
\nfor our client to test the efficacy of the law against your commission,
\nwhich definitely will be an embarrassment to your commission. We are
\nsending a copy of this letter to the court before which the case is
\npending in Ado-Ekiti.\u201d, the letter added.<\/p>\n
Citing two different cases, Chief Olujinmi said it was baffling that the
\npanel chairman, Justice Oyewole (rtd), who had filed processes, through
\nhis counsel, \u00a0in the pending suit which the Minister instituted to
\nchallenge the constitutionality and legality of the commission, still went
\nahead to summon Fayemi to appear before the panel.<\/p>\n
He said : \u201cIt is worrisome therefore that notwithstanding Your Lordship\u2019s
\nknowledge of the pendency of the suit and having engaged counsel who has
\nfiled processed on your behalf, your commission still proceeded in
\ndeviance of the suit to issue a witness summon on our client to appear and
\ngive evidence before your commission. We have no doubt\u00a0 Your Lordship is
\nvery much aware of the settled principle of law laid down by the Supreme
\nCourt in Governor of Lagos State v Ojukwu (1986).<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely, whilst a serving judge, Your Lordship would have invoked this
\nprinciple in the resolution of some cases, It is therefore expected that
\nYour Lordship should not be a party to or consciously engage in or
\nencourage an action that will amount to an affront to the authority and
\nintegrity of the court or stymie the efforts and capacity of the court to
\ndo justice in the pending case\u201d. The letter added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lawyer to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has written the Chairman of the Ekiti State Judicial Commission of Inquiry, Justice Silas Bamidele Oyewole (rtd), citing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n