The presidency has again fired back at the National Judicial Council (NJC), insisting that there was no pending appeal against the acquittal of Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court.
It lambasted the NJC for reinstating suspended judges, accusing the body of condoning corruption.
Special Adviser to the President on Prosecutions, Okoi Obono-Obla, declared that the council was working against government and that the presidency was disappointed.
But NJC on Saturday accused the Presidency of telling lies over the recall of six judges who had been suspended by the Council.
It said since there were no cases against them pending in any court, there was no reason to keep them perpetually suspended.
In another response on Monday,Obono-Obla said Oye’s statement contained false assertions and deliberate misrepresentation of law and facts.
He said one of the assertions was Oye’s claim “that the Office of Attorney General of the Federation had on two occasions – April 18, 2017 and April 21, 2017 – shunned invitations by the Federal Capital Territory High Court for settlement of records of appeal which if it had done would have elevated the notices of appeal to proper appeal.’’
Obono-Obla said contrary to Oye’s claim, the FCT High Court Registry, by a notice dated June 6, 2017 and signed by one Paul A. Edili (Head of Appeal) invited both parties to the appeal to attend court on June 14, 2017 for the purpose reconciliation of records of appeal.
He said: “I challenged Soji Oye to furnish us with proof of service of this notice which the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation shunned.
“It is obvious that Soji Oye in his haste to defend the indefensible muddled up the law concerning the role of an appellant and the registry of the court where an appeal is emanating from. In the interest of the discerning public and the need to the record straight, I wish to state as follows:
“By Order 8 of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2016, the registrar of the court below has a duty to compile and transmit the record of appeal to the Appeal Court. This he has 60 days to do; commencing from the day the notice of appeal is filed. And it is immaterial that parties do not attend court for purpose of settlement of the said record.
“It is only where the registrar fails or neglects to transmit the record of appeal in accordance with Order 8, Rules 1-3, that the appellant may intervene upon the expiration of the initial 60 days, to compile and transmit the record of appeal. And the appellant has additional 30 days to do so. See Order 8, Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2016.
“In the instant case, I am unaware of any notice for settlement of record of appeal served on the office of the AGF apart from that issued on the 6th day of June, 2017 against the 14th day of June 2017, just after the filing of additional notice of appeal. And even that was issued at the instance of the office of the AGF.
“But assuming there was any notice for settlement of record of appeal, the failure of the appellant to attend court for settlement of the said record would not prevent the registrar of the lower court from performing his duty in line with Order 8, Rule 2 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2016.
“If the notice of appeal was filed on the 7th day of April, 2017, the registrar of the lower court had 60 good days (under the Rules) expiring on 7th June, 2017 to settle and transmit the record of appeal.”
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