A Lagos lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, at a Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday stalled the trial of Charles Okah, a suspected mastermind of the October 1, 2010 blast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Keyamo, who is the lead defence counsel, was absent from court on Tuesday, but through his junior, Mr. John Ainetor, requested an adjournment to enable him to attend the interview of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for the award of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The interview was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The request for adjournment was objected to by the prosecuting counsel, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), who said Keyamo’s letter requesting adjournment was “in bad faith.”
Izinyon also said Keyamo had only attended the proceedings once, so Ainetor, who had always appeared for the accused persons in the suit, was qualified to continue the case.
He, therefore, described the application for adjournment as “a make-up and strategy” to further delay the trial.
Justice Kolawole, while ruling on the application for adjournment, expressed displeasure over the conduct of Keyamo in the case.
The judge said, “I can only wish him (Keyamo) good luck. In the event that he succeeds, as I wish he does, it is my wish and expectation that he will realise and assume the great burden all Senior Advocates of Nigeria are required to shoulder in assisting positively, the administration of justice in Nigeria.
“The record of the applications so far made by his chamber does not bear eloquent testimony to this demand.”
The judge granted the adjournment reluctantly, saying he was constrained by other official duties he needed to attend to, and to avoid the impression that the court was interested in scuttling Keyamo’s appearance before the LPPC.
“I rarely do not want the impression to be created that the decision to move on was to scuttle the attendance of the Mr. Festus Keyamo before the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for his interview, which is slated for today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday),” the judge said in his ruling.
He then adjourned the matter till October 7.
Okah, a brother to a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Henry Okah, is being tried alongside Obi Nwabueze for the bomb attack near the Eagle Square in Abuja. About 12 persons were said to have died in the attack.
After over two years delay in the commencement of the trial due to interlocutory applications by Okah, the matter was fixed for Tuesday for the prosecution to start calling its witnesses.
Keyamo had sent a letter informing the judge that he would want to personally handle the matter at the trial stage but that he would not be able to attend the court on Tuesday because of the LPPC interview.
A lawyer from Keyamo’s law firm, Ainetor, who had been appearing in the case for the preliminary proceedings, on Tuesday urged the court to adjourn the matter. He argued that Okah’s relatives had specifically instructed Keyamo to personally handle the matter at the trial stage.
He urged the court to grant the adjournment in compliance with the provisions of Section 36(6)(c) of the 1999 Constitution, which he said gave an accused person the right to be defended by legal practitioner of his or her choice.
But Izinyon urged the court to order the trial to commence as he had three of the prosecution witnesses present in court.
He maintained that with the previous conduct of the defence in delaying the suit, the accused defence counsel was not entitled to being granted an adjournment.
He said, “We are opposing the application for adjournment very vehemently.
“They (defence) are like a man crying wolf when there was no wolf, when the wolf actually came, nobody took him seriously.
“If they have been forthright, I will be the last person to oppose the application. But because of their antecedents, their hands are defiled.”
In his ruling, Justice Kolawole reluctantly adjourned the case till October 7, even as he set aside the Thursday date which he had earlier fixed for continuation of trial.
He added that the indulgence he had granted the accused was due to the weighty nature of the charge instituted against the accused.
He lamented the delay that had been caused in the case due to Okah’s interlocutory applications, but added that they had kept granting the indulgence to the accused persons due to the weighty charge of treason they were facing.
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