Human rights advocate and constitutional attorney Chief Mike Ozekhome was fined N40 million by the Supreme Court on Tuesday for bringing pointless cases on the Imo Governorship contest that has been settled since 2019.
In a decision, Justice Tijani Abubakar mandated that the Senior Attorney personally reimburse the four respondents he brought before the court for the N40 million punishment.
The request was deemed odd, ridiculous, unjustified, unwarranted, vexatious, and unpleasant by Mr. Abubakar in the ruling.
He further held that the motion was a calculated design to demonize the Supreme Court.
Mr Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN called to the Nigerian Bar over 42 years ago was fined the huge amount for bringing a motion before the Apex Court seeking to revalidate the suit that removed Emeka Ihedioha as Governor of Imo State in 2019.
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Those to be paid are the Action People’s Party, APP, Uche Nnadi, Uche Nwosu and the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
In the motion considered to be frivolous by the court, Mr Ozekhome had asked the Court for a consequential order to compel INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to Mr Ihedioha to enable him spend a four year tenure as Imo Governor.
His complaint was that Senator Hope Uzodinma, the current governor, had illegally spent the four years that Mr. Ihedioha was supposed to serve.
In the motion, Mr. Ozekhome among other things asserted that since the All Progressives Congress (APC) fielded no candidate for governor of Imo in 2019, Mr. Uzodinmma should not have been appointed on the party’s platform.
The top court, however, denied the motion, stating that it lacked the authority to consider it.
NAN
