Adibe Emenyonu in Benin Metropolis
The seven-man panel arrange by the Edo State Chief Choose (CJ), Justice Daniel Okungbowa, to analyze the allegation of perjury and leaking of presidency officers secrets and techniques levelled towards the Deputy Governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, yesterday fastened at present, Friday, April 5, for remaining adjournment to defend himself.
The panel arrived on the choice when it resumed its sitting yesterday however the deputy governor and his counsel have been absent.
The chairman of the panel, Justice Stephen A Omonua (Rtd), stated the panel would wait to see if the defendant would open his defence and thereafter referred to as for the defendant
When it turned obvious that the defendant, Shaibu, was absent and was not represented, Justice Omonua referred to as for look for the plaintiff, the Edo State Home of Meeting, which initiated the impeachment course of.
N.U. Ibrahim, Authorized Officer, Edo State Home of Meeting, introduced his look for the Meeting with two others.
The chairman then dominated that the panel would nonetheless adjourn to provide the defendant the ample alternative to look earlier than it to current his protection.
“This panel is adjourned for the final time to April 5, 2024 for the final time, at 12 midday, to permit the defendant to current his protection,” Justice Omonuwa dominated.
On the inaugural sitting of the panel on Wednesday, Shaibu’s counsel, Professor Oladoyin Awoyale (SAN), took the depart of the panel to excuse himself and the defendant from persevering with with the pane’s proceedings.
Awoyale hinged his stance on his submission that each one events within the matter should obey the order of an Abuja Federal Excessive Court docket which requested the events to look earlier than it to indicate trigger why it ought to or shouldn’t grant the enforcement of basic human rights prayer Shaibu tabled earlier than the court docket.
Whereas Awoyale (SAN) admitted his error earlier than the panel that there was no injunction by the Abuja court docket restraining the panel as he had erroneously instructed the panel, he maintained that because the court docket had requested all of the events to come back earlier than it on Monday, April 8, 2024, the panel should obey that decision.
However because the panel overruled his submission and upheld the argument of the counsel to the Home of Meeting, Joe Ohiafi, that the continuation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, foreclosed any court docket type stopping tue Meeting and the panel from perform it’s constitutional duties, the senior lawyer took his depart of the panel.