Justice Ogbonnaya declines to recuse herself from Onyeama’s libel suit

Justice Keziah Ogbonnaya of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Abuja on Monday, declined a request to recuse herself from a libel suit filed by Geoffrey Onyeama, a former Nigerian foreign affairs minister.

Mr Onyeama had sued a career ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lillian Onoh, who is also a sister to his former wife, for libel, alleging that she defamed him in a series of memos she sent to him while he was the minister.

But, Mrs Onoh alleged bias against Ms Ogbonnaya, urging her to stop adjudicating on the suit.

At the resumed hearing on Monday, Mrs Onoh’s lawyer, Richard Aneke, prayed Ms Ogbonnaya to recuse herself from the case based on his client’s instruction.

Mr Aneke drew Justice Ogbonnaya’s attention to a pending petition before the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, seeking a reassignment of the case to another judge.

In a ruling on Monday, Justice Ogbonnaya said she was assigned the suit by the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Hussein Baba-Yusuf.

“No judge assigns cases himself, it is the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court that assigns cases. It is the same Chief Judge that tells a judge to stop hearing a particular case.

“Unless and until the Chief Judge sends a copy of the petition to me for response, this case will go on.

“Since the Chief Judge has not ordered for the reassignment of this case, this matter shall continue in this court. That is the order of this court,” Ms Ogbonnaya explained.

Subsequently, the judge asked Mr Aneke if he was abandoning his client’s pending applications, which he said no.

“I have my client’s instruction not to proceed with the case, should my lord refuse to recuse herself from the matter. Regarding the motions, I am not abandoning my motions,” Mr Aneke said.

In his response to the issue, Mr Elachi, prayed the court to dismiss the applications on account of Mr Aneke’s intention to pull out of the case.

In another short ruling, Justice Ogbonnaya said the “pending motions are deemed to have been moved” by Mr Aneke despite his fierce objection to the judge’s continued handling of the case.

“It is the view of this court that since the motions are before the court, the court deems them moved by the 1st defendant’s counsel,” the judge said.

The judge went to reject Mr Aneke’s request for an adjournment to enable him confer with Ms Onoh concerning the application for recusal which the judge declined.

Mr Elachi had sought a N50,000 fine against Mr Aneke for seeking an adjournment.

He said he would only agree for an adjournment if the judge adjourned until Thursday, 14 December, which Ms Ogbonnaya reversed herself, and adjourned the case.