Keyamo Heads To A’Court Over N10 Fine On Frivolous Suit Against Atiku

Festus Keyamo has vowed to appeal the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss the case he filed against Atiku Abubakar over the SPV saga.

Justice James Omotosho had in his ruling on Monday awarded a N10 million fine against Keyamo for filing a frivolous suit against Atiku.

The judge awarded a N5 million fine each in favour of Abubakar and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), making a N10 million against Keyamo.

Justice Omotosho, who decsribed the suit as “frivolous, vexatious and abuse of court processes,” directed that the fine should be paid “at 10 per cent per annum until the cost is finally liquidated.”

The order followed an oral application by counsel for Atiku, Benson Igbanoi, and that of the ICPC, Oluwakemi Odogun, asking for cost after the matter was dismissed.

Keyamo, who was also the spokesperson of the dissolved Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), had filed the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/84/2023 on Jan. 20.

In the application, he had sought an order compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to probe and prosecute Abubakar.

Keyamo based his action on the ground of claims by one of Abubakar’s aides, Michael Achimugu, that between 1999 and 2007 when he was vice president, he (Achimugu) conspired with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to rip off the country using what he termed “Special Purpose Vehicles.”

The ex-minister filed the suit after the 72-hour ultimatum he gave the three investigating agencies elapsed.

He alleged that Abubakar was in violation of Section 18(2) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and Section 96(1) of the Penal Code, hence, unqualified to contest in Feb. 25 poll.

But Atiku (1st defendant), through his lawyer, filed a notice of preliminary objection, seeking for an order dismissing the suit for being incompetent, lack of locus standi, want of jurisdiction and for non-disclosure of reasonable cause against him.

The EFCC, ICPC and the CCB, in their separate preliminary objections, also challenged the competency of the suit and jurisdiction of the court.

Delivering the ruling, Justice Omotosho held that he had two issues for determination and that was whether the suit was frivolous and whether the relief sought by Keyamo could be granted.

The judge, who said the jurisdiction of the court would be determined, also said that the locus standi of the applicant would also be looked into.

“Locus standi is the capacity of a party to institute an action. It interrogates what is the business of the plaintiff with the defendants

“The need for proper locus standi is to prevent busy body from instituting a suit and restraining them from wasting the time of the court,” he said.

He said though the court did not say that the ex-minister did not have a right to write statutory agencies to investigate Abubakar, but that he had not shown why he was affected by Abubakar’s action.

“A citizen of a country has a right to report crime and that cannot be an infraction on fundamental rights of any person.

“But the complainant is to complain to the statutory agencies and not to drag the 1st defendant with the agencies to court to seek an order to compel the agencies to investigate the suspect,” he said.

Justice Omotosho held that Investigating authorities had the discretionary powers to investigate any case and to know if such case would warrant any prosecution or not, citing previous cases to back his decision.

Reacting, Keyamo disagreed with the court’s ruling and vowed to appeal the judgement.

The statement from Keyamo’s lawyer John Ainetor reads;

“Earlier today, a Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the case filed by Festus Keyamo, SAN, CON, against the candidate of the PDP in the last Presidential Election, Alhaji ATIKU Abubakar over the SPV saga principally because the court was of the opinion that the law-enforcement agencies were not given enough time to commence investigations before the suit was filed, amongst other sundry reasons.

“Our client respectfully disagrees with the reasons for the said decision because the law-enforcement agencies did not indicate their willingness to commence investigations, even if they were given more time. We want to establish a legal principle that the society cannot wait as infinitum for law-enforcement agencies to do their statutory duties. The suit was designed to prompt the agencies to show their READINESS to investigate.

“We are immediately filing an appeal against the said decision to the Court of Appeal as the struggle on this issue continues”.

Credit: PM NEWS