Chisaa Oloye
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday declined an application brought before it by a former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha asking it to restrain the Imo State Government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from confiscating his properties.
The order comes barely two days after a State High Court in Owerri ordered the final and absolute forfeiture of Royal Palm Springs Hotel and other properties illegally acquired by Okorocha and other members of his family.
Okorocha, a serving Senator, had approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, while it was on vacation, for an interim order seeking to stop the confiscation of the said illegally acquired properties.
At Wednesday’s hearing, counsel to Okorocha, Mr. Oba Maduabuchi (SAN) told the presiding Justice Ahmed Mohammed that the properties of his client were being marked for confiscation and demolition.
He prayed the court to issue an interim order to the EFCC and the Imo State Government (defendants in the suit) not to carry on with their action.
But the application could not go through following a motion by the counsels to the Imo government and the EFCC challenging the jurisdiction of the court to sit on the matter during the vacation period.
The lawyers submitted that the application by Okorocha amounted to abuse of judicial processes and cannot subsist in view of the motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter during the vacation period of the court.
In their separate addresses, the lawyers argued that once an issue of jurisdiction is raised in any suit, it must be determined and resolved first before the court can take further steps in the matter.
Similarly, Livy Uzuokwu (SAN), who is Counsel to the 3rd to 17th defendants also drew the attention of the court to a notice of preliminary objection he filed, challenging the jurisdiction of the judge to fixed a matter during the vacation.
According to him, the plaintiff failed to comply with the mandatory provisions of Order 46 Rule 5 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2019, which stipulates the plaintiff must obtain a fiat from the chief judge for the matter to be heard during vacation.
In his judgment, Justice Mohammed refused to grant Okorocha’s application on the ground that he would first hear the motion challenging his jurisdiction to sit on the matter during vacation. He adjourned the matter till August 24.
On Monday, a High Court in Owerri had ordered the final and absolute forfeiture of Royal Palm Springs Hotel and other properties said to belong to Senator Okorocha and other members of his family.
The presiding judge, Justice Fred Njemanze, sitting as a vacation judge, held that Okorocha’s counsel failed to give concrete and verifiable reasons why a final and absolute forfeiture order ought not be given in favour of the Imo state government.
Justice Njemanze, while noting that the application brought by Okorocha’s counsel was not properly filed, described it as a ‘surplusage’, a term in law which means a statement completely irrelevant to a matter.
The judge said persons who might have made purchases on such properties are at liberty to approach the court to prove their titles.