The Supreme Court of Nigeria has imposed a fine of N40 million on Mike Ozekhome SAN, a senior advocate, for filing a frivolous, vexatious, and irritating motion before the court in respect of the Imo state governorship in 2019.
Ozekhome, who is the lawyer of Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was fined for bringing a motion before the Apex Court seeking to revalidate the suit that removed Ihedioha as governor of Imo state in 2019.
The Supreme Court dismissed an application by Ihedioha seeking to be issued a certificate of return as the rightful governor of Imo state.
Ozekhome was ordered in a ruling by Justice Tijani Abubakar to personally pay the N40M fine to four respondents he dragged before the court. Those to be paid are the Action People’s Party (APP), Uche Nnadi, Uche Nwosu, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
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In the motion considered to be frivolous by the Court, Ozekhome had asked the Court for a consequential order to compel INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to Ihedioha to enable him to spend a four-year tenure as Imo Governor.
He argued that the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodinma, unlawfully spent the four years that Mr Ihedioha ought to have spent. Ozekhome’s motion claimed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had no candidate in the 2019 Imo governorship election, hence, Uzodinmma ought not to have been made governor on the platform of APC.
However, the Apex Court dismissed the motion on the ground that it has no jurisdiction to entertain such a motion. Justice Abubakar held in the ruling that the request was strange, frivolous, baseless, unwarranted, vexatious, and irritating.
He further held that the motion was a calculated design to demonize the Supreme Court.
