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From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
A high court sitting in Neni, Anambra State presided over by Justice Onyinye Anumonye has dismissed a suit for judicial review brought by Mr Godson Onyedibe an official of the Department of State Service (DSS), and his parents against his wife, Mrs Ogechukwu Nkiru Onyedibe and her Father, Chief Osita Okafor over alleged attempted murder.
The DSS officer, Godson Onyedibe, his father, Israel Onyedibe, and mother, Ngozi Onyedibe, had applied to the High Court for orders of prohibition and order of certiorari to quash charge No. MCN/36C/2022 was brought by the Commissioner of Police Anambra State against them for the alleged attempted murder of his wife Mrs Ogechukwu Nkiru Onyedibe, among other felonious charges.
When the case came up before the Chief Magistrate Court sitting at Neni for biding over where Godson Onyedibe and his parents were docked, had through their lawyers Chidi Nworka, Esq., raised objections and prayed the court to adjourn the case to enable him to make a formal preliminary objection on the ground of jurisdiction against the charges which was granted.
But, instead, Mr. Chidi Nworka Esq., on May 2, 2022, rushed to the High Court and applied to the superior court to quash the proceedings at the Lower Chief Magistrate Court for lack of territorial jurisdiction to entertain the charges claiming that the alleged beating of the wife and attempted murder all happened at Owerri in Imo State not in Anambra State.
Vehemently opposing the application for judicial review, Chris Ajugwe Esq., lawyer for Mrs. Ogechukwu Onyedibe and her Father Chief Osita Okafor insisted that the Chief Magistrate Court had territorial jurisdiction to hear the charges.
Ajugwe argued that part of the offences were committed in Owerri where the couple resided and other parts in Adazi-Ani, Anambra State, saying “a grievous criminal offence to evict a wife from her matrimonial home in Owerri and bundled her to her father’s home in Adazi-Ani as if she were a bad commodity or goods being returned to the supplier.
“Forceful eviction and abating forcefully eviction of wife from her matrimonial home as the parents of Godson Onyedibe had done in this case.
The counsel, Ajugwe further submitted that it was against Section 11(3( of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition and Protection) Law of Anambra State 2017 and that it was callous and unprecedented.
But ruling on the eviction and return of Mrs Ogechukwu Onyedibe with a covering note accompanying it from Owerri to Adazi-Ani given by Godson Onyedibe to his parents to deliver to his father-in-law, Chief Osita Okafor, Justice Onyinye Anumonye on July 20, 2023, held in part:
“There is no doubt that the delivery of the said letter, supporting the charge of eviction, occurred at Adazi-Ani, within the jurisdiction of the 4th Respondent; the alleged delivery of the 2nd Respondent against her will to the home villa of the 1st Respondent, and the state in which she was delivered could have elicited violent confrontation from the 1st Respondent and are thus conducts which constitutes elements of the count likely to occasion the breach of the peace, pursuant to Section 247(d) Criminal Code Cap. 36. Vol II Revised Laws of Anambra State of Nigeria, 1991.
“It is clear from the foregoing that some of the elements charged occurred within the jurisdiction of the 4th Respondent, though the initial incident may have occurred at Owerri, outside the jurisdiction of the 4th Respondent; I am therefore, based on the extant position of the law, of the considered view and I hold that any of the jurisdictions – Owerri and Anaocha, in which elements occurred has territorial jurisdiction to hear and determine the Charge in Exhibit A.
“In any case, Section 8(2)(b) of the Criminal Code Cap. 36. Vol. II Revised Laws of Anambra State of Nigeria, 1991 provides that if the act or omission occurs elsewhere that in the State, and the person who does that act or makes that omission afterwards comes into the State, he is by such coming into the State guilty of an offence of some kind, and is liable to the same punishment as if that act or omission had occurred in the State and he had been in the State when it occurred; thus the coming into Adazi-Ani on 5/12/2021 by the 1st and 2nd Applicants and subsequently by the 3rd Applicant who hails from Alor, Anambra State, automatically confers jurisdiction on 4th Respondent.”
The Court therefore dismissed the suit with N600,000 cost against the Applicants in favour of Mrs Ogechukwu Nkiru Onyedibe and her father Chief Osita Okafor.
Mr Godson and his parents will have to go back to face their charges of attempted murder of his wife Mrs Ogechukwu Onyedibe in the Magistrate Court.
Meanwhile, Mr Godson Onyedibe had approached an Owerri High Court in a suit asking the court to nullify his marriage with his wife and custody of the four children of the marriage.
