RIGHT OF REPLY:
My attention has been drawn to a publication in your reputable news media, Neptune Prime, in which the Chief Media Adviser to Prof Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of INEC, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi struggled to deny that the judgment on the criminal offense of contempt of court orders against his principal is valid and subsisting. The delimma of Mr. Oyekanmi is understandable. It is usually a herculean task to successfully defend the indefensible.
It is only Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister that was reputed to be good at such things. The Appeal suit no. CA/ABJ/CV/724/2023 has Chief Victor Ike Oye as the sole appellant with Otunba Kamaru Lateef Ogidan, Alh. Rabiu Mustapha and INEC as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respondents, respectively. Prof Mahmood Yakubu did not appeal the contempt judgment against him. Oyekanmi needs to be educated that contempt committal process is on individuals and not on institutions, which usually commences with the issuance of forms 48 and 49 by a court of competent jurisdiction upon the filing of a motion for committal by an aggrieved party.
This due process was followed diligently, and Mahmood was personally served. It is now public knowledge that Mahmood is scandalously partisan in the matter of APGA leadership dispute, but the fact is that he remains a contemnor since his name is not synonymous with Oye and he can not hide under the cover of Oye to claim that he is a party to the pending appeal suit under reference. I have no personal interest in Prof Mahmood Yakubu’s impending jail.
I, therefore, sincerely advise him to avail himself of the Supreme Court judgment of Friday, 26/01/2024, where the apex court affirmed the decision of the lower Court, which imprisoned the immediate past Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Alexander Okoh. That case is on all fours with the instant case that may result in Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s imprisonment.
In the lead judgment, Hon. Justice Tijani Abubakar JSC tongue-lashed the BPE and Okoh for disobeying several orders issued on the matter under reference, describing their actions as “scandalously shameful and disgraceful.”
I sincerely advise Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to purge himself of contempt of court orders without further delay and follow it up with unreserved apologies to Chief Edozie Njoku and APGA.
Chief Chekwas Okorie
Founder and Pioneer National Chairman, APGA.
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