Court asked to dismiss Aondoakaa’s suit seeking review of judgement banning him from public office

A Federal High Court in Abuja has been asked to dismiss a suit by former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Micheal Aondoakaa (SAN)) seeking a review of Supreme Court judgment which barred him from holding public office for life.

A defendant in the suit and former House of Representatives Member, Hon Emmanuel Obot claims that Aondoakaa’s new suit was not only funny but strange in law.

In a preliminary objection filed on his behalf by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Uwemedimo Nwoko, the 1st defendant is challenging the competence of a high court to review and set aside the judgment of the Supreme Court as being sought by the former AGF.

Among others, Nwoko on behalf of his client has claimed in a counter-affidavit that the high court lacks jurisdiction to sit as an appellate court in a decision already concluded by the apex court.

The senior lawyer further said that Aondokaa’s fresh suit amounted to a dangerous invitation capable of knocking the head of the high court against that of the Supreme Court.

Nwoko, therefore, asked the high court to decline the invitation to review the apex court’s judgment and dismiss the suit.

Aondoakaa had, in his new suit, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside a Supreme Court judgment that banned him from holding public office for life.

The Supreme Court judgment which barred him from holding public office for life was unanimously delivered by a five-man panel of justice of the apex court on December 10, 2021.

Apart from being banned from holding public office for life due to professional misconduct and abuse of office, Aondoakaa was also ordered to pay a sum of N2 million to his victim, Hon. Emmanuel Bassey Obot.

Besides, the Supreme Court in the judgement also directed the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to take further punitive action against the ex-Minister who served during the late Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s led administration.

Aondoakaa incurred the wrath of the Supreme Court following a series of letters he wrote asking some government agencies not to obey a court judgment that declared Emmanuel Obot as a duly elected House of Representatives member for Akwa Ibom State.

Among the people, he wrote in his capacity as AGF to disregard a court order to inaugurate Obot after the court victory is, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole.

Aondoakaa also wrote a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu not to issue a Certificate of Return to Obot as well as the Court of Appeal President, not to set up a Tribunal Panel on the election dispute in Akwa Ibom State.

However, in a dramatic turn, the embattled Aondoakaa filed a fresh suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja praying it to review and set aside the judgment of the Supreme Court against him.

The grouse of the former Justice Minister who is currently a gubernatorial aspirant is that the judgment against him was obtained by fraud from Obot.

Aondoakaa claimed that two of the averments in the affidavit in support of the suit by Obot which led to the apex court action against him were not correct and should be used to void the Supreme Court decision against him.

Meanwhile, Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed has fixed May 12, 2022, for a hearing of objection against Aondoakaa’s new suit.

Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun who delivered the lead judgment of the Supreme Court against Aondoakaa had upheld the High Court and Court of Appeal findings that the former AGF abused his office and also engaged in professional misconduct in the letters he wrote out encouraging disobedience to lawful court orders.

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