TheCable

A federal high court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking the arrest, probe and prosecution of the George Obiozor, president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and other leaders of the group over alleged contempt.

The registered trustees of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo general assembly, led by Onuorah Basil Onyeachonam, had in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/56/2021, alleged that Obiozor and other leaders of the group were running an illegal organisation.

The suit had the inspector-general of police (IGP) and attorney-general of the federation (AGF) as respondents.

The applicant filed an ex parte application, seeking an order of mandamus, compelling the IGP and the AGF “to arrest, investigate and commence criminal proceedings” against the leaders of the group.

Delivering ruling on Friday, Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, held that the applicant failed to establish a prima facie case against the respondents.

He said the applicant failed to show that Obiozor and others committed any offence known to law to warrant their arrest and prosecution.

“The prayer here is for leave to compel the first and second respondents (IGP and AGF) to arrest, investigate and commence criminal proceedings against George Obiozor, Obi Nwali, Okey Egbuche, Beatrice Eze, Bartholomew Okeke and Ogbonna for running an illegal and/or unregistered association known as Ohanaeze Ndigbo similar to that of the applicant which has been registered under Part C of the CAMA by the CAC,” the judge said.

“In my opinion, where such prayer is sought, it must be demonstrated with concrete evidence that those sought to be arrested, investigated and prosecuted have committed criminal offence(s) known to law.

“This is because the power given to the attorney-general of the federation in Section 174 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, and the power given to the inspector-general of the police in Section 4 of the Police Act are to not intended to be used in vacuo or without a cause.

“The onus is on the applicant to show that the statute underlying their allegation creates a criminal offence, which the first and second respondents are obligated to enforce by the power of arrest, investigation and prosecution.

“In the end, I am unable to see any justifiable cause in this application. I think this application, without more, is frivolous and I am unable to lend the judicial powers of this court to encourage such litigations.

“I make an order dismissing this case for lacking in merit. This is the order of the court.”

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo general assembly, which broke out from the Ohanaeze national assembly, was deregistered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in July 2020.