The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, dismissed a suit seeking the
\ndeclaration of the Igbo social cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as
\nillegal organisation.<\/p>\n
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling, also rejected the call for the arrest,
\nprobe and prosecution of the President General of the association, Prof
\nGeorge Obiozor and other leaders of the group over alleged contempt.<\/p>\n
Justice Ekwo held that the applicant; The Registered Trustees of
\nOhanaeze Indigbo General Assembly, led by Barrister Onuorah Basil
\nOnyeachonam, failed to show that Obiozor and others committed any
\noffence known to law to warrant their arrest, investigation and
\nprosecution.<\/p>\n
He said after a thorough evaluation of the processes filed by the
\napplicant he found that it failed to establish a prima facie case to
\nwarrant the grant of the reliefs sought.<\/p>\n
The Onyeachonam-led Ohanaeze Indigbo General Assembly had, in a suit
\nmarked: FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/56\/2021 claimed that Obiozor and other leaders of the
\nOhanaeze Indigbo, who emerged from the recently conducted election, were
\nin contempt by allegedly running an illegal organisation.<\/p>\n
The applicant, in the suit which had the Inspector General of Police
\n(IGP) and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as respondents,
\nclaimed that while it was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs
\nCommission (CAC), the group with a similar name, led by Obiozor and
\nothers was unregistered.<\/p>\n
It then filed an ex-parte application for leave to apply for the
\nissuance of an order of mandamus, compelling the IGP and the AGF \u201cto
\narrest, investigate and commence criminal proceedings\u201d against Obiozor
\nand others for allegedly running an illegal and\/or unregistered
\nassociation known as Ohanaeze Ndigbo.<\/p>\n
The applicant said its resort to the court was because of the failure of
\nthe respondents to act on its letters to them on Jan.15 for the arrest
\nand prosecution of Obiozor and others.<\/p>\n
In the ruling on Friday, Justice Ekwo said: \u201cThe prayer here is for
\nleave to compel the first and second respondents (IGP and AGF) to
\narrest, investigate and commence criminal proceedings against Prof.
\nGeorge Obiozor, Obi Nwali, Okey Egbuche, Beatrice Eze, Bartholomew Okeke
\nand Ogbonna for running an illegal and\/or unregistered association known
\nas Ohanaeze Ndigbo similar to that of the Applicant which has been
\nregistered under Part C of the CAMA by the CAC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, where such prayer is sought, it must be demonstrated
\nwith concrete evidence that those sought to be arrested, investigated
\nand prosecuted have committed criminal offence(s) known to law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is because the power given to the Attorney-General of the
\nFederation in Section 174 (1) of the 1999 Constitution and the power
\ngiven to the Inspector General of the Police in Section 4 of the Police
\nAct are to not intended to be used in vacuo or without a cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe onus is on the applicant to show that the statute underlying their
\nallegation creates a criminal offence which the first and second
\nrespondents are obligated to enforce by the power of arrest,
\ninvestigation and prosecution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, I am unable to see any justifiable cause in this
\napplication. I think this application, without more, is frivolous and I
\nam unable to lend the judicial powers of this court to encourage such
\nlitigations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI make an order dismissing this case for lacking in merit. This is the
\norder of the court.\u201d(NAN)<\/p>\n
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,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n