Justice P.O. Life of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos State has summoned the House of Assembly of Ogun State (OGHA) to show cause within three days, why the assembly should not be restrained from proceeding with the case of, or setting the law against the former Managing Director of Ogun State Property Investment Corporation (OPIC), Mr. Jide Odusolu.
The court gave the order while ruling on a suit filed by Odusolu against the Inspector-General of Police, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2, the Commissioner of Police in Ogun State, the Ogun State House of Assembly and the Attorney-General of Ogun State.
It will be recalled that Ogun State House of Assembly, during its plenary proceedings on September 21, 2012, adopted the report of its Committee on Anti-Corruption and Public Accounts, which claimed to have investigated the finances of OPIC and found huge sums of money are missing from OPIC accounts.
Odusolu had in a suit filed on his behalf by human rights activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), sought the declarations of court ordering that the proceedings of OGHA and the report of the committee which it purportedly adopted constitute an infringement on his fundamental right to a fair hearing, that Ogun State House of Assembly lacks the competence to investigate alleged crime and that the chairman of the committee out to investigate OPIC funds was himself an interested party who served together with Mr Odusolu in the previous administration and even inspected some OPIC projects which he now claims have not been executed.
He further sought an order of injunction restraining the Assembly from deploying the report to initiate any criminal complaint against him before the police and to restrain the police from acting on the report pending the hearing and final determination of the suit pending in court.
In a 40-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Mr Odusolu himself, he traced the series of projects executed by OPIC, noted that the accounts of OPIC have been audited by professionals and no fund is missing at all. He stated further that he was being persecuted by the committee and some Assembly members.
The reliefs he sought from the court includes a declaration that the applicant is entitled to his liberty and freedom to move freely, within Lagos State or any part of Nigeria, without let or hindrance from the respondents, in exercise of the applicant’s fundamental rights guaranteed under sections 35 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Articles 6 and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap. 10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
He also asked the court to mandate the Ogun State House of Assembly to pay him the sum of N10 billion as general, punitive and aggravated damages for the violation of his fundamental rights.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents
In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.
and then