“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This Newton’s Third Law of Motion appears to be playing out in the life of a lawyer who has moved to set arrested billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike aka Evans, free.
After filing a N300million suit against police authorities in a bid to set the suspect free, Evans’ lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, drew flaks from his course mates today.
Ogungbeje, who graduated from Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in 2009, filed a fundamental rights suit on behalf of Evans, by dragging the Inspector General of Police and three others before a Federal High Court in Lagos over the suspected kidnapper’s alleged illegal detention.
But his mates who belong to a group called ‘Brave 600 Plus’ appear not to be happy with him.
The course mates, who have a Whatsapp group, trounced Ogungbeje as they revealed some secrets about his past.
They revealed that Ogungbeje presently has a case with the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee for professional misconduct. They said that allegations of obtaining money under false pretenses were brought against him.
The course mates appeared not surprised about Ogungbeje’s action because of his antecedents.
According to them, Ogungbeje, a Jehovah witness who loves to wear red ties, was ceremoniously dismissed with a letter to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) office, when he was having his Chambers attachment at Festus Keyamo’s chambers in 2011 for conducts unbecoming of a lawyer.
He also allegedly had issues with Justice Gabriel Kolawole, when he had his court attachment at the Ikeja High Court.
The lawyer, who heads Lawflex Chambers and lives in Alasia, at Ijanikin area of Lagos, was said to have travelled to Anambra State to meet and convince Evans’ father that he could set his son free.
Evans had made a series of confessions in police custody on how he kidnapped his victims and kept them for as long as seven months until their families coughed out as much as $1million dollars.
A victim’s son had revealed that his 86-year-old father was killed by Evans and his gang after he had paid a huge ransom.
Through Ogungbeje, Evans is seeking a court order directing the respondents to immediately charge him to court if there is any case against him.
He is specifically seeking an order, compelling the respondents to immediately release him unconditionally in the absence of any offence warranting a charge.
In the suit marked, FHC/L/CS/1012/2017, Evans is contending that his continued detention by the respondents since June 10, without a charge or release on bail is an infringement on his fundamental rights.
Evans’ lawyer argued that the respondents ought to have charged him to court in accordance with the provisions of Sections 35 and 36 of the Constitution.
He further argued that the alleged offence committed by the applicant are correspondingly intertwined with the constitutional safeguards as provided under Sections 35 and 36 of the Constitution.
In a 27-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Evan’s father, Stephen Onwuamadike, it was averred that the applicant has been subjected to media trial without any court’s order by the respondents.
Ogungbeje further averred that the media trial and news orchestrated by the respondents have continued to generate reactions in both print and electronic media without his client being afforded fair hearing before a court of law.
Hugging controversy, Ogungbeje had in April filed a suit asking the Federal High Court to stay proceedings on the forfeiture of $43,449,947 (about N15billion), N23, 218, 000 and £27,800 (about N10.6 million) found in a flat in Ikoyi, Lagos.
He also sought an order directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to furnish the court with a report of its preliminary or final investigation on the source of the money, its owner, and how the currencies got into the building.
Ogungbeje, in a motion on notice asked the court not to order a permanent forfeiture of the money since there are claims and counter claims regarding its ownership by the Rivers State government and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and since the Federal Government had set up the Osinbajo panel to find the truth about the ownership of the money.
The case did not get anywhere as the money was later permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja also declined an application filed by Ogungbeje, seeking an order to stop the arrest or any ‘untoward action’ against eight judges whose houses were raided by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Those he wanted to restrain by the order included President Muhammadu Buhari, the DSS, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Police.
He had on October 14, 2016 filed the substantive suit seeking 10 prayers, among which is an order awarding N50 billion against the defendants as “general and exemplary damages”.
He argued that the arrest of the judges without recourse to the NJC was unlawful and amounted to humiliating them.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole in a bench ruling delivered after Ogungbeje’s counsel, Ayo Ogundele, moved the ex parte application, held that he needed to resolve a number of issues including the locus standi of the plaintiff in an inter-party hearing before he could make a pronouncement on the prayer.
Ogungbeje also filed a suit in Lagos in 2014 asking for the reinstatement of Murtala Nyako as governor of Adamawa State. This was after Nyako was impeached by the state assembly in July of the same year and the speaker of the state assembly had taken over.
Again, the case hit the rocks.
Ogungbeje claimed the Assembly’s alleged failure to serve Nyako personally with the impeachment notice violated his fundamental right to fair hearing as enshrined under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.
His mates also revealed that he sued the Lagos State Government on behalf of Prophet T.B. Joshua over the collapse of the Synagogue church building without the knowledge of the clergy man, who had to settle with him to withdraw the case.
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