Author: Lawbreed Limited

The Ebonyi high court has recorded a total of 9,218 filed cases between 2022 and 2023, the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Elvis Ngene, has said. Ngene made the disclosure during the 2023/2024 legal year celebration on Friday in Abakaliki. The Chief Judge also said that 15,990 cases were pending in the High court. According to him, in the year under review, the number of cases pending before the period was 15,990; 9,218 cases were filed, while the cases disposed were 11,289. “At the magistrate court, a total of 4,961 cases were filed while 3,820 cases were disposed of,…

Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Musa Dattijo Muhammad has raised a concern over the existing structure of the judiciary and the concentration of power within the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). In his retirement speech on Friday in Abuja, Justice Muhammad highlighted that the CJN serves as the Chairman of multiple significant bodies, including the National Judicial Council (NJC), the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), the National Judicial Institute (NJI), and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC), which appoints Senior Advocates of Nigeria. According to him, the oversight functions of these bodies should not…

There appears to be a crack at the Supreme Court, barely 24 hours after it validated the election of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. A retiring justice of the court, Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who reportedly pulled out from the seven-man panel that dismissed all the appeals that sought to remove President Tinubu from office, has accused the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, of abusing the powers of his office. Justice Muhammad, who spent 47 years in active judicial service, bowed out of the apex court bench on Friday, having clocked the 70…

Nigeria is ranked 120th of the 142 countries in terms of adherence to rule of law, according to the latest global Rule of Law Index released by the World Justice Project (WJP). The 2023 index released on Wednesday in Washington DC, United States, also showed that out of the 34 countries ranked in the sub-Saharan region, Nigeria is rated 23rd. According to the WJP report, countries were judged on eight indicators, namely constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice and criminal justice. While the report noted that Nigeria’s score…

The Oyo State High Court sitting in Ogbomoso, Wednesday upturned the appointment of the new Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Ghandi Olaoye. The Oyo State Government announced Pastor Ghandi Olaoye as the new Soun and made him king on 8th September 2023. Before this time, one of the contestants, Kabir Laoye had sued Ghandi Olaoye, noting that he was not eligible to take Soun’s position. The court ordered that the Oyo State government must not appoint anyone to the position until after its judgement. Details later…

The Supreme Court has fixed Thursday for judgment in the appeals by the presidential candidates of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, challenging the result of the February 25 election which produced President Bola Tinubu. The Director of Information of the Supreme Court, Dr Festus Akande, confirmed the date on Wednesday. Both PDP and LP had on Monday argued their cases before the apex court while the appeal of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and its presidential candidate, Chichi Ojei, was dismissed after they withdrew it. The Presidential Election Petitions Court had…

President Bola Tinubu received temporary relief on Monday after a federal judge in the United States denied a request for an urgent release of the Nigerian leader’s confidential records compiled by American law enforcement authorities. Aaron Greenspan’s motion on October 20 urged Judge Beryl Howell to quickly order the Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Department, and other U.S. bodies to immediately turn over records they had scheduled for release before the end of October. “Plaintiff’s emergency motion for a hearing to compel immediate document production is denied,” Ms. Howell of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia…

The Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence sitting in Ikeja on Tuesday sentenced the Medical Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, Doctor Olufemi Olaleye, to life imprisonment for the defilement of his wife’s niece. Justice Rahman Oshodi sentenced him after he found him guilty of the offence of defilement and sexual penetration of a 15-year-old girl. The judge held that the prosecution was able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that all the evidence before the court corroborated that of the victim. Olaleye was arraigned on two counts which bordered on defilement and sexual assault by penetration…

The Federal Government of Nigeria has won the legal case against Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited in a London court on Monday. The judgment was delivered after five years of legal frameworks which have finally been to the advantage of Nigeria, as the court quashed the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID. In a ruling delivered by e-mail, Robin Knowles, the Justice of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales, upheld Nigeria’s prayer on the ground that the ill-fated gas processing contract was obtained by fraud. The Business and Property Court in London delivered the judgment in…

After over five years of legal fireworks, Nigeria has finally succeeded in halting the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID. In a judgment delivered by email, Robin Knowles, justice of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales, upheld Nigeria’s prayer on the ground that the award was obtained by fraud. Having accepted Nigeria’s argument, Knowles will now have to choose from three options: to return the award to the tribunal, in whole or in part, for reconsideration; to set the award aside in whole or in part; or to declare the award to be of…