Justice John Tsoho of Abuja Federal High Court on Tuesday withdrew from the suit against the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi and his Science and Technology counterpart, Ogbonnaya Onu over their alleged attempt to bribe judges.
The Kingdom Human Right Foundation is seeking an order of mandamus compelling the removal and prosecution of Amaechi and Onu after two Justice of the Supreme Court, Justices John Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta had on October 19 and 21 respectively claimed the ministers attempted to induce them to influence some governorship election petition judgments.
Justice Tsoho, who is presiding over the trial of Justice Ngwuta on allegations of money laundering and multiple passports filed by the federal government, cited the fact that the criminal case, being the substantive matter of the dispute, is currently before him as the reason for his withdrawal.
He consequently returned the case to the Chief Justice of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta for re-assignment.
The applicant, Barr Kingdom Okere, had asked the court to issue an order of mandamus compelling the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately arrest, investigate and prosecute Amaechi and Onu based on the allegations by the embattled Justices.
Okere also wants an order of mandamus compelling President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the two ministers or cause them to resign from office without further delay on the grounds of public interest, public morality, and to enable the DSS and EFCC carry out their statutory responsibility.
The lawyer also wants the court to declare that the refusal of Buhari to sack the two ministers “is grievous enough to conclude that the anti corruption fight is window-dressing, witch-hunt, selective, vindictive, malicious, and prosecuted with gross disregard to the rule of law.”
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