Ogebe’s counsel sought costs for latest government delay “gimmick”

An Abuja high court has again awarded costs against the Attorney General of the Federation for seeking an adjournment of the defamation lawsuit of international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe against the Federal Government over his sponsorship of Chibok girls to America.

At the proceedings yesterday in the capital , the Defendants were represented by Mr Agbe of the Ministry of Justice who claimed that they were unable to proceed with final addresses because they had not received the record of proceedings.

However counsel for the Plaintiff, Godwin Abarike, Esq said that the records of the case were already with the Defendants.

Per Abarike, “I am opposing the request for adjournment because it is the latest gimmick from the defendants to delay the case when we are here for final address. They have already given us notice of appeal over their dismissed motions so this is just another delaying style.”

Counsel for the FGN, Mr Agbe took offense at Abarike’s submission saying “My Lord, his use of the word delay style is painting me in a bad light.”

However the court said, “no it’s the records that paint you in a bad light. This case has been on since 2017. It’s just a defamation case not a chieftaincy case.”

Eventually the court ruled that it would “reluctantly“ adjourn the case to allow the FGN prepare its final address and awarded N100,000 costs against the Federal Government.

This is the fifth time that costs have been awarded against the Federal Government since the commencement of this defamation action in 2017. However the FGN has failed to pay previous awards totaling over N1,000,000 till date.

The matter was adjourned to March, 2023 for adoption of Final Written Addresses.

The FGN never presented any witnesses or evidence in its defense whereas the Plaintiff Emmanuel Ogebe, Esq flew to Nigeria and testified in his own behalf on multiple occasions.

“It’s unfortunate that the Nigerian government doesn’t take matters seriously. No wonder foreign companies like to buy or invest in cases against the Nigerian government like the P&ID case.

Just looking at the currency swop mess in the country right now, you can see how the government has weaponized mass poverty for election moneypullation. This is a government that is literally a liability on its people and works hard only to foment hardship on them. It’s as if the Buhari administration’s policy is ‘poverty for all by May 28th.’”