As the Federal High Court in Abuja resumes back from its annual vacation, the headquarters of the court has been buzzing with a lot of activities, as more are expected, with the begging on a new legal year in sight.
Arising from its 65 day annual long vacation, a visit to the court premises which houses ten of the sitting judges, with the exemption of Late Justice Evoh Chukwu, was bubbling with life, after several days of skeletal activities.
However, while the courts were on vacation, the duo of controversial Justice Okon Abang and Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, who were recently transferred from the Lagos division, held sway as the vacation judges, interchanging dates and sittings over various matters assigned to them.
Significantly, while skeletal activities continued during the vacation, Justice Abang could not avoid being in the news again, when he declared the Ahmed Markarfi led caretaker committee, illegally constituted, thereby indirectly restraining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), from embarking on its botched national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
Ali Modu Sheriff, the factional national chairman of the PDP had approached the court in a suit filed against the PDP, but when various counsels announced appearance for the party, in determining the authentic legal representation for the party, Justice Abang recognized the Sheriff faction on the grounds that, Markarfi’s caretaker committee was not legally constituted.
This however did not go down well with supporters of the aggrieved faction of the party, who purportedly wrote a petition to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ndahi Auta, alleging partisanship on the part of Abang.
The matter was amongst one of the few matters that could not get concluded before him during the vacation, that were either moved to Justice Dimgba’s court or were later sent back to the Chief Judge for reassignment.
Amongst some of the notable matters that also came up during the vacation was that of, Buruji Kashamu against the Inspector General of Police, Director General State Security Services and Oladipupo Adebutu, where he sought the court for protection against his alleged attempt to “bundled, and extradite him”.
Even though unconfirmed sources had linked Justice Abang and the former Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke to have been a close ally of Kashamu, Justice Abang however, told the applicant (Kashamu) to enforce the earlier court judgements which were in his favour against his extradition.
Amongst some of the matters that are expected to also come up before the courts upon resumption including that of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, before Justice Adeniyi Ademola, which was adjourned to October 18 and 19, 2016 on the day of resumption because the court was not going to sit.
Other matters that are expected to continue are that of the former governors of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu, Imo state, Ikedi Ohakim, Benue state, Gabriel Suswam , the Azibaolas (cousin and wife of the former President, Goodluck Jonathan), former Chief of Defense Staff amongst many other pending high profile cases.
Aside the usual court activities, the 2016/2017 legal year would be heralded with a devotional worship at the Ecumenical Centre, followed by a special legal year court session on Monday, September 19, 2016 and the opening of the 31st annual judges conference on Tuesday, September 20, 2016.
A member of staff who spoke with our reporter on the condition of anonymity allayed fears that some of the workers were not ready to resume back to work, after the long, according to her, even the judges are high in spirit to return back to work, just as the workforce who are “used to seeing and entertain some highly placed figures”.
She however, confirmed that this could not be far-fetched from the little tips they get from some of these prolific figures anytime they come to court for various reasons and matters.
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