Matter Arising : Is Asue Ighodalo A Dishonest And Fraudulent Lawyer?

Matter Arising : Is Asue Ighodalo A Dishonest And Fraudulent Lawyer?....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

By Nosa Omorodion 

Although not fully resolved, the issues of Barr. Asue Ighodalo forging a Permanent Voter’s Card and lying on oath while submitting his personal details to INEC for claims and objection, has left a question mark on his integrity. This is moreso, given that this man who seeks to lead Edo people as the next governor, is no ordinary man but a lawyer of long standing.

As a lawyer, Asue Ighodalo ought to know the implication of the offences he is being alleged to have committed. Forgery and perjury in the context of his alleged execution and deployment are criminal offences. If tried and found guilty of them, there is no middle course of sanctioning but preventing him from contesting the September 21 Edo State Governorship Election or removing him instantly from office, assuming he contested and won. ..CONTINUE READING.

In the meantime, while the Edo stakeholders who took him to the Federal High Court have insisted that Barr. Asue Ighodalo breached the law and must be tried, the PDP Governorship Candidate is trying strenuously to see that the matter does go to trial by pleading technicalities, among which is and principally the constitutional principle of fair hearing.

However, on the two occasions the matter has been challenged in the High Court and Court of Appeal, on May 27th and July 22nd, respectively, Asue Ighodalo has lost his bid to stop frustrated the case as of now.

However, Hon. Justice Patricia Ajuma Mamhoud, lead judge in the ruling the Court of Appeal, disagrees with the application of this tactic by Asue Ighodalo’s team of lawyers, and he states on page 19 of the Certificate of True Copy (CTC): “… the mis-use of the principle of fair hearing by Counsel in a deliberate attempt to delay and eventually frustrate expeditious disposal/determination of undefendable cases is quite apt and pungent here.” He further adduces a familiar reason for this deplorable tactic by quoting the Hon. Justice Niki Tobi, JSC in the case of ADEBAYO v AG. OGUN STATE (2008) thus: ‘“Learned Counsel for the appellant roped in the fair hearing principle. I have seen in recent time that parties who have bad cases embrace and make use of the constitutional provisions of fair hearing to bamboozle the adverse party and the Court, with a view to moving the Court away from the live issues in litigation. They make so much weather and sing the familiar song that the constitutional provision is violated or contravened. They do not stop there. They raise the defence in the most inappropriate cases because they have nothing to canvas in favour of their case. The fair hearing provisions in the Constitution is the machinery of locomotive justice, not a spare part to propel or invigorate the case of the user…. Let the litigants who have nothing useful to advocate in favour of their cases leave the fair hearing provision of the Constitution alone because it is not available to them just for the asking.”’ And upon this analogous quote of the revered Justice Tobi, Justice of the Supreme Court, and other supporting statements, Justice Patricia Ajuma Mamhoud and the other Judges of the Court of Appeal, ruled that the case of forgery against Barr. Asue Ighodalo, PDP Governorship Candidate, should continue at the High Court as previously determined by Justice Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

While we await proceedings on this matter, it is obvious that Asue Ighodalo has a case to answer in the law court and the court of public opinion. In the meantime, the probing questions in the court of public opinion are: Did Asue Ighodalo for a fact forge a voter’s card? Why does he not want a quick trial? Or by inference from the statement of Justice Mamhoud, is he trying to frustrate the expeditious determination of an “undefendable” case?

Definitely we have not heard the last of this matter. Whether Asue Ighodalo will escape the hammer of justice is a matter for the courts. Nevertheless, the issue must weigh heavily upon the minds of Edo people. They owe it a duty to themselves to interrogate the rulings of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, with emphasis on the sensitive statements surrounding the rulings. The last thing Edo people should have for Governor is a smart lawyer who can criminally break the law to get what he wants.