The FCT High Court Gudu Abuja will today, Monday, February 25, 2019, deliver its ruling in the multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit filed by International Human Rights Lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe over the Chibok schoolgirls he sponsored to USA.

The ruling, expected to be delivered this morning, is to decide whether the Federal Government of Nigeria will be allowed to enter a late defense out of time or not thus effectively bringing the case to an end as plaintiff’s case has already been closed.

The court had previously has ordered the Nigerian Government to pay costs to international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe following the failure of the Federal Government to begin its defense yet again in a defamation lawsuit brought by Ogebe against them.

During the proceedings at the Abuja high court last week, lawyers for the government argued a fresh motion for extension of time to file a defense out of time, abandoning the previous motion they had filed in September. The court had adjourned for arguments of the motion and commencement of the defense of the government.

However in December, the government again substituted a new and different excuse for the late filing of their defense claiming administrative procedures whereas in their prior filing they claimed transfer of original counsel in the case.

All of these happened months after May 31st 2018 after the plaintiff was cross examined on the stand and closed his case for the commencement of the defense of the first defendant, the Attorney General of the Federation.

Following the strenuous objections by counsel to the plaintiff that they had already prepared and filed responses to the FGN’s September motions which had now been withdrawn and substituted for another one in December which plaintiff’s counsel had also again filed a reply to, the presiding judge awarded costs against the FGN and adjourned the case to next year for a ruling. This is the second time costs have been awarded against the FGN for not proceeding with their defense.

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