Contempt: Court Jails Ahoada East Councillors

A Port Harcourt High Court in Rivers State presided over by Justice George Omereji, has sentenced four principal officers of the Ahoada-East Local Government Legislative Council to three months imprisonment with hard labour, and without option of fine for showing lack of respect to court directives.

Those sentenced include the former leader of the legislative arm, Hon Emeka Golden, Deputy Leader, Hon Goodlive Whiegbe, Chief Whip, Hon Onwudiwe Abraham as well as the clerk of the House, Mr Aaron Ikechukwu Odum.

The principal officers had earlier been convicted along side the other nine councillors of the local government council by the court following an application for committal to prison of the councillors brought by the embattled Vice Chairman of the council, Hon Britain Ewor through his counsel, Barrister Agent B. Ihun-Maduenyi in the case before the court challenging his purported impeachment and removal from office by the councillors despite the court order restraining them from such legislative exercise .

Sentencing the principal officers yesterday, the trial judge, Justice George Omereji ruled that the convicts failed to purge themselves and grab the window of opportunity earlier given them by the court to free themselves from the  wrath of the law and punitive consequence of their disobedience to the court.

According to him, the court has on February 25 2013, found the principal officers, including the other nine councillors culpable of court contempt, and admitted them to bail so as to enable them show remorse  to their offences before the next adjourned date.

Justice Omereji averred that the convicts were warned of the consequence if they failed to comply with the court directive.

He described the purported impeachment of the Vice Chairman by the councillors after the court had restrained them from doing so as an act meant to undermine the integrity and honour of the court.

He stated that the convicted councillors and their colleagues, rather than comply with the court directive to reinstate the vice chairman, approached an Appeal Court to challenge their conviction by the High Court.

The trial judge posited that on the 16th May, 2013, the councillors, through their counsel, Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN) brought an oral application informing the court that the matter was before an Appeal Court, and requested the court to adjourn the case beyond June 5, 2013 which is the date of hearing of the matter at the appellate court.

He averred that the oral application was not enough reason to stop the court from giving its ruling on the matter, noting that there was no evidence of notification from the Appeal Court on the matter.

‘There is no process or Appeal filed from the appellate court to my court. There is no record from the registry that the court will  rely on”, he said.

‘The rule is that when a matter under trial at any lower court be it Magistrate, High and Appeal Court , and the matter is moved to a higher court of jurisdiction with evidence of proof, then, the  lower court will stop hearing the matter. But in this case, it is not so”, he declared.

Justice Omereji warned that the court could not fold its arms and watch people ridicule the integrity of the court, even when their crimes are contemptuous in nature, adding that such would brew anarchy and lawlessness in the society.

However, the sentencing did not come without some legal drama displayed at the court room.

At about 11.40am, when the  case was called by the court clerk and  the counsel in the matter announced their appearance, and the judge was set to rule, it was observed that three of the convicts were absent.

The development forced the court to stand down the proceeding for 2 hours, 2mins and Justice Omereji directed the counsel to the defendants to ensure that all the convicts in the matter were present in the court.

He said the order became imperative because the nature of the offence committed by the convicts was “quasi criminal”, adding that the law required all the parties to be in court during the proceedings.

It would be recalled that the High Court had on the 27th of June, 2012 given an order restraining the Ahoada East Local Government councillors from impeaching the vice chairman of the council, Hon Britain Ewor pending the determination of the suit before the court, which the legislators failed to abide by but rather described the court order as “a mere pieces of paper”.