Festus Keyamo
A Lagos lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, at a Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday stalled the tribulation of Charles Okah, a suspected mastermind of the October 1, 2010 blast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Keyamo, who is the lead defence counsel, was absent from court on Tuesday, but through his junior, Mr. John Ainetor, requested an adjournment to enable him to attend the interview of the Licit Practitioners Privileges Committee for the award of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The interview was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The request for adjournment was remonstrated to by the prosecuting counsel, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), who verbally expressed Keyamo’s letter requesting adjournment was “in deplorable faith.”
Izinyon additionally verbally expressed Keyamo had only attended the proceedings once, so Ainetor, who had always appeared for the incriminated persons in the suit, was eligible to perpetuate the case.
He, therefore, described the application for adjournment as “a make-up and strategy” to further delay the tribulation.
Equity Kolawole, while ruling on the application for adjournment, expressed displeasure over the conduct of Keyamo in the case.
The judge verbally expressed, “I can only wish him (Keyamo) good fortuity. In the event that he prospers, as I optate he does, it is my wish and prospect that he will realise and surmise the great burden all Senior Advocates of Nigeria are required to shoulder in availing positively, the administration of equity in Nigeria.
“The record of the applications so far made by his chamber does not bear eloquent testimony to this injuctive authorization.”
The judge granted the adjournment reluctantly, verbalizing he was constrained by other official obligations he needed to attend to, and to eschew the impression that the court was fascinated with scuttling Keyamo’s appearance afore the LPPC.
“I infrequently do not optate the impression to be engendered that the decision to move on was to scuttle the attendance of the Mr. Festus Keyamo afore the Licit Practitioners Privileges Committee for his interview, which is slated for today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday),” the judge verbalized in his ruling.
He then adjourned the matter till October 7.
Okah, a brother to a former bellwether of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Henry Okah, is being endeavored alongside Obi Nwabueze for the bomb attack near the Eagle Square in Abuja. About 12 persons were verbalized to have died in the assailment.
After over two years delay in the commencement of the tribulation due to interlocutory applications by Okah, the matter was fine-tuned for Tuesday for the prosecution to commence calling its witnesses.
Keyamo had sent a letter apprising the judge that he would optate to personally handle the matter at the tribulation stage but that he would not be able to attend the court on Tuesday because of the LPPC interview.
A lawyer from Keyamo’s law firm, Ainetor, who had been appearing in the case for the preliminary proceedings, on Tuesday urged the court to adjourn the matter. He argued that Okah’s relatives had categorically injuctively authorized Keyamo to personally handle the matter at the tribulation stage.
He urged the court to grant the adjournment in compliance with the provisions of Section 36(6)(c) of the 1999 Constitution, which he verbally expressed gave an inculpated person the right to be forfended by licit practitioner of his or her cull.
But Izinyon urged the court to injuctively authorize the tribulation to commence as he had three of the prosecution witnesses present in court.
He maintained that with the precedent conduct of the defence in delaying the suit, the incriminated defence counsel was not entitled to being granted an adjournment.
He verbalized, “We are opposing the application for adjournment very vehemently.
“They (defence) are like a man crying wolf when there was no wolf, when the wolf genuinely came, nobody took him solemnly.
“If they have been forthright, I will be the last person to oppose the application. But because of their antecedents, their hands are defiled.”
In his ruling, Equity Kolawole reluctantly adjourned the case till October 7, even as he set aside the Thursday date which he had earlier fine-tuned for continuation of tribulation.
He integrated that the indulgence he had granted the inculpated was due to the weighty nature of the charge instituted against the incriminated.
He lamented the delay that had been caused in the case due to Okah’s interlocutory applications, but integrated that they had kept granting the indulgence to the incriminated persons due to the weighty charge of treason they were facing.
