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By Lukman Olabiyi
Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court, Lagos has hands-off on a suit filed by Admiralty Fleet Limited (BICS Garden) and Admiral Festus Porbeni (retd), against the Attorney General of Lagos State; National Inland Waterways Authority and the Chairman, Lagos State Special Task Force.
The judge’s decision to hands-off was sequel to the petition written by the respondents to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.
Reacting to the petition, Justice Osiagor said that there were distortions of facts in the said petition written against him by the Attorney-General of Lagos State, stressing that the petitioner wrote without looking at the record of the court.
“I will not want to continue with this matter. I will tell the Admin Judge that I would like to recuse myself. The Attorney General wrote his petition without looking at the record of the court. Either he was misled by his counsel in his ministry or they want to be mischievous. The Attorney General has distorted the facts, and I will not want to continue with the matter. Whenever the CJ writes, I will respond appropriately,” the judge said.
Justice Osiagor stated that if the petitioner had taken time to look at the record of the court, he would have seen that the court refused an ex parte application brought by the plaintiffs on October 12, 2021, and ordered that the defendants should all be put on notice.
Despite being on notice, men of the third defendants invaded the premises on October 14, 2021, causing more destruction to structures on the premises/ property than had been filed in the original suit.
Lawyer to the first and third defendants, Justice Osiagor, wondered why he did not serve his colleagues with copies of the petition.
“You wrote a petition and you did not serve any of the parties in the suit. This is not the way it should be done in a noble profession. It is dirty, it is not decent nor transparent. We are not fighting ourselves, but we should be guided by principles and integrity and not primordial sentiments. I have principles guiding me aside from being a judge.”
The judge, however, reiterated that the restraining order he made on October 18, 2021, against the first and third defendants, still subsists and has not been set aside.
The court had on October 18, 2021, restrained the Attorney-General of Lagos State, and the Lagos State Special Task Force Unit (1st and 3rd defendants) from allocating any portion of a property located at B20, Wole Olateju Crescent, off Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, in Eti-Osa Local government Area, and/or entering into the said premises/ property pending the hearing of the substantive suit.
However, Lagos State Government appealed against the order and followed it up by re-deploying the Lagos State Task Force police officers unto the site, in breach of the order of injunction.
The first and third defendants allegedly brought a bulldozer onto the site at about 4am on October 20, 2021, and demolished further structures on the site with the Lagos State Task Force policemen providing protection for those flouting the injunction.
Amazed by the conduct of the first and third defendants, the claimants commenced contempt proceedings against the Attorney General of Lagos State and sought for the Attorney General and the Chairman, Lagos State Government Special Task Force to be committed.
However, Adebayo Haroun, counsel to 1st & 3rd defendants, informed the court that the Attorney General had written a petition to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, complaining that they had no confidence in the judge because he had issued a preservative order against them, based on merits of law.
But, Counsel to the claimants, Olatunji Oyeyipo, SAN; Abiodun Olatunji, SAN, and Counsel to the second defendants, NIWA and Adejare Kembi ESQ, told the court that they were surprised at the turn of events and complained that the Attorney General did not deem it fit to effect service of the said petition on them.
