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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A chief magistrate and a customary court have been restrained from proceeding with criminal charges against a US Navy retiree, who returned home to invest in a poultry farm, pending determination of his suit challenging the charges.
Specifically, Justice Chido Nwakanma ordered Chief Magistrate Juliet Res-Chikezie and the Customary Court, Okpuala, Abia State, to halt proceedings in Charge No. CC/13/MISC/2026 and Charge No. MIN/20C/2026 against Dr Elelenta Nwambuisi Elele, pending hearing of his substantive application.
The order, dated June 11, also directed that court processes be served on all respondents by substituted means. Certified true copies were obtained on June 24.
Dr Elele, a shareholder of Melody Farms Ltd, returned from the United States with his pharmacist wife to invest in Abia State, answering the state government’s call for investment before he and the company were charged over alleged health and environmental risks linked to their poultry farm in Ovu Nwambuisi, Umungwa/Umuobasi Village, Isialangwa South.
In the suit, filed through Nkemakolam Okoro, Elele names as respondents the Isiala Ngwa North and South Local Government Health Authorities, Magistrate Res-Chikezie, the Customary Court and three individuals, including the prosecutor in the matter, Kingsley A. Ishmael.
Elele’s case rests on two main grounds: that the charges were never personally served on him and that the local governments were prosecuting him personally for the alleged conduct of a limited liability company, Melody Farms, which he argued is a separate legal entity under company law, citing the foundational Salomon v. Salomon principle as applied by Nigerian courts.
He also disputed the legal basis of the bye-law used to charge him in the customary court and noted that the farm already holds an Environmental Impact Assessment certificate from the Abia State Ministry of Environment clearing it of health or environmental risk.
He is seeking, among other reliefs, an order quashing the charges, a perpetual injunction barring further notices against him or the farm and N100 million in damages plus N20 million in costs against the respondents.
The matter has been fixed for hearing on July 7.
