Posted by From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja on
THE leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, standing trial over alleged treason at a Federal High Court in Abuja, has filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.
Uwazurike trained Biafran army, says govt
THE leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, standing trial over alleged treason at a Federal High Court in Abuja, has filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.
Also, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday reserved its decision on the bail application filed by the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafran (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazurike and six others for January 27, 2006.
The Federal Government told the court that Uwazurike had already trained a Biafran army that would wage war against the legal government of President Olusegun Obasanjo and seccede.
Dokubo-Asari's appeal, filed on January 18, is challenging the judgment of Justice Peter Olayiwola, which he delivered on January 17, 2006.
According to the two-page notice of appeal, Dokubo-Asari listed two grounds why the Court of Appeal should upturn the decision of Justice Olayiwola.
Dokubo-Asari had on January 17 vented his anger on Olayiwola as he looked him in the face and said: "You are just an instrument for the President, that is why you cannot disqualify yourself from this case. Can this happen in the United States or in Britain? What do you want the lawyer to tell me? What else can you do to me? You can only kill me because I am already in prison. You are a useless old man".
On the first ground, Dokubo-Asari said the learned judge erred in law in refusing to disqualify himself from further adjudicating on the matter.
In the appeal filed through his counsel, Festus Keyamo, Dokubo-Asari said: "The learned trial judge failed to realise that the question was not one of the administrative competence of the Chief Judge to assign cases however and whenever and to whoever but the circumstances and unorthodoxy surrounding the very appointment of the Hon. Justice Peter Olayiwola all the way from Benin and the impression it would leave in the minds of ordinary members of the society."
On the second ground, Dokubo-Asari said the learned trial judge failed to exercise his discretion judicially and judiciously when he adjourned further hearing in the matter for nearly two months.
According to him, criminal trials are deemed to be adjourned from day to day and it would be wrong to adjourn a matter for an unreasonably long time without a valid explanation.
He added that it was the constitutional right of accused persons to have his case determined expeditiously.
He is, therefore, asking the Court of Appeal for the following:
an order overruling the decision of the trial court; and
an order disqualifying Justice Olayiwola from further adjudicating on the matter.
No date was fixed for hearing.