{"id":23379,"date":"2019-12-23T23:15:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T22:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=23379"},"modified":"2019-12-23T23:15:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T22:15:27","slug":"judge-recuses-self-from-sowores-suit-against-sss-agf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=23379","title":{"rendered":"Judge recuses self from Sowore\u2019s suit against SSS, AGF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court\u00a0in Abuja, on Monday, recused himself from the fundamental rights suit filed by Sahara Reporters Publisher, Omoyele Sowore.
\nHe made the decision during the hearing of the fundamental rights suit filed by the detained activist.
\nMr Sowore had in his suit dated November 20 against the State Security Service (SSS) said that his continuous detention by the agency is illegal and violated his fundamental rights to liberty as guaranteed by Section 35 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Article 6 of African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights (Ratification and Enforcement Act (CAP A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
\nThe Sahara Reporters publisher is asking the court to order the SSS to pay him N500 million as damages for his detention and violation of his fundamental rights.
\nHe sought:
\n\u201cAn order of this court compelling the respondents to pay to the applicant the sum of N500,000, 000, 00 ( Five hundred million naira) as general and aggravated damages for the illegal violation of the applicant\u2019s fundamental right to life, dignity of his person, fair hearing, health, freedom of movement and freedom of association.
\n\u201cAn order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from further violating the applicant\u2019s fundamental rights in any manner whatsoever and however without lawful justification.\u201d
\nJoined in the suit is the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
\nCourt Session
\nWhen the matter came up for hearing on Monday before the vacation judge, the court held that it cannot preside over the matter.
\nJustice Mohammed said the publisher had on two occasions accused him of receiving bribe in a certain matter.
\n\u201cThis applicant is the publisher of Sahara Reporters. Sometimes in 2016, the same outfit accused me of taking money in a matter to compromise the cause of justice and I returned the case file to the then chief judge,\u201d he said.
\nThe judge mentioned the intervention of two senior advocates in the matter, Rotimi Jacob and Joseph Daudu, who he said argued the case should not be reassigned and that the chief judge should return the file back to him.
\n\u201cIt was returned back to me and I continued with the matter,\u201d he added.
\nMr Mohammed said a similar incident occurred earlier this year.
\n\u201cAgain, this year around June again, the same paper accused me of taking money again on the same case. So I had to hands-off again and then it was reassigned to Justice Okon Abang, who is now handling the matter.
\n\u201cThe case may go either way. It may succeed. It may fail. If my orders are not favourable to him, it would be seen as vengeful or while proceedings are ongoing, applicants will be apprehensive about what judgment I would give,\u201d the judge held.
\nResponding, Mr Sowore\u2019s lead counsel, Femi Falana, said he was not aware of the alleged publications mentioned by the court. He cited the case of MKO Abiola where the Supreme Court disqualified eight justices from hearing any of the appeals arising from Mr Abiola\u2019s case.
\nThe senior lawyer said that the concord newspaper of which Mr Abiola was the publisher had written a story concerning the eight justices which had led to the institution of libel suits against the newspaper.
\nMr Falana said the unanimous decision reached by the apex court held that those justices recuse themselves in the interest of justice.
\nHe then asked that the judge recuse himself from Mr Sowore\u2019s matter.
\nMr Falana, however, added that his team had no cause to doubt the court.
\nOn his part, the SSS lawyer, Godwin Agbadua, said he largely agreed with Mr Falana.
\n\u201cI will not state a position whether or not my lord can hear it because it could be misconstrued to be the form of the agency trying to delay the matter,\u201d he added.
\nThe AGF\u2019s lawyer, Abdullahi Abubakar, on his part, said, \u201cIn view of your lordship\u2019s observation, the second defendant leaves the issue to the discretion of the court.\u201d
\nIn his short ruling on Monday, Mr Mohammed held that \u201cJustice is rooted in confidence. That is to say none of the parties should have any fear that he will not get justice before any particular court. It is my belief that the only fair just and proper cause to take in the circumstance is to recuse myself from taking this matter.\u201d
\n\u201cConsequence of the above development, this matter is remitted back to the chief judge for reassignment to another judge,\u201d he ruled.
\nApart from this fundamental rights suit filed by Mr Sowore, he is also facing trial for treasonable felony after he organised a nationwide anti-government protest tagged #RevelutionNow.
\nMr Sowore was\u00a0arrested\u00a0in August for planning the protest. The Buhari administration claimed the planned demonstration was a treasonable act because it was aimed at causing a regime change.
\nHe denied the allegations, saying his campaign was to mobilise teeming Nigerian youth to denounce poverty, insecurity and other national challenges assailing the country.
\nMany Nigerians and lawyers have said that the SSS\u2019 refusal to comply with the order effectively meant that Mr Sowore was being held in illegal captivity by state agents.
\nFollowing Mr Sowore\u2019s initial arraignment in September, he was granted bail by the trial judge. But the SSS disregarded the order and the government filed charges against the Sahara Reporters\u2019 publisher.
\nHe was later released on December 4 based on a court directive but was rearrested the next day.
\nAfter his re-arrest on December 5, no new charges have been filed against Mr Sowore despite being questioned by the SSS for alleged links to outlawed groups in Nigeria.
\nNo new charges have been filed against the activist since his new detention, which is in violation of Nigerian laws which allow a maximum of 48 hours for such detention.
\nBy Premium Times<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court\u00a0in Abuja, on Monday, recused himself from the fundamental rights suit filed by Sahara Reporters Publisher, Omoyele Sowore. He made the decision during the hearing of the fundamental rights suit filed by the detained activist. Mr Sowore had in his suit dated November 20 against the State Security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[590,170],"class_list":["post-23379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-recuse","tag-sowore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}