More like the hunter becoming the hunted, the Chief Magistrate of the Nasarawa State Magistrate Court, Karu, Vincent W. Gwahemba, who has, for years, been used to haunt law-abiding citizens, is now at the receiving end of justice.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Abuja has ordered Mr. Gwahemba to immediately proceed on suspension from office after being queried over allegations of “gross misconduct” and “abuse of magisterial powers”.
The order for Mr. Gwahemba’s suspension was conveyed in a letter dated January 30, 2024, signed by the Secretary of the Commission, Yahaya Yakubu Shafa.
In the letter obtained by our reporter, Shafa said the Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission directed the embattled Chief Magistrate to proceed with the disciplinary action based on the recommendation of the Hon. Chief Judge of Nasarawa State.
Before leaving, Shafa said the letter suspending him from office asked Mr Gwahemba to respond to the allegations leveled against him within 24 hours of his receipt of the query.
“In the interim, upon the receipt of this letter, you are to proceed on interdiction. The interdiction is with immediate effect pending the determination of the allegations leveled against you. You will also be invited to make your presentation before the Commission on a date to be communicated to you,” the letter said.
Petition against him
The disciplinary action by the JSC followed a petition against him by a senior lawyer, Jubrin Samuel Okutepa, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and head of an Abuja-based law firm, JS Okutepa & Co.
Okutepa’s petition asked the Commission to mete out severe sanctions to the Chief Magistrate for issuing the order for the arrest and detention of his client, Benjamin Joseph, who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of an Ibadan, Oyo State-based ICT retail firm, Citadel Oracle Concepts Limited, without a formal charge.
The suspension letter, which referred to complaint No. S/JSC/AD/OFF/12/VOL.XV/XXX submitted to the Chief Judge of Nasarawa State, accused the Chief Magistrate of professional misconduct and gross abuse of his judicial powers.
Okutepa had alleged that Gwahemba had issued a warrant for the arrest and detention of his client over a purported criminal defamation complaint filed by Zinox Technologies Limited before the Magistrate Court in Karu.
He said in trying to secure bail for his client his Chambers found out that the warrant to arrest him was obtained and executed without serving him the details of the complaint against him, contrary to established legal procedures and due process of the court.
The Senior Advocate who pointed out that his client has been standing trial at the FCT High Court over a similar charge instigated against him by Zinox Technologies Limited, narrated how armed policemen in commando fashion violently whisked him away on January 25, 2024, within the premises of the FCT High Court after undergoing cross-examination in the ongoing case.
He said without a formal charge, his client was bundled into police detention at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters, Abuja, where he spent one night before being taken to Karu the next day for trial without a formal complaint lodged against him
Okutepa said despite his plea for his client’s release pending proper arraignment, the insistence of the Chief Magistrate to continue with the trial left no doubt that he acting under the yoke of some unseen influences that compromised his capacity to exercise his judicial powers without biases.
Besides, he said the Chief Magistrate’s decision to order the detention of his client outside his jurisdiction in Lafia constituted professional misconduct that should be thoroughly investigated by the State Chief Judge, to dispel the notion that judicial officers in Nasarawa State were in the habit of acting unethically and unprofessionally.
The petition dated January 26, 2024, a copy of which was sent to the Chief Registrar of the Nasarawa State High Court of Justice, said Gwahemba’s conduct cast doubts on his professional ethics and integrity while spotlighting abuse of power and human rights violations. It is not clear at the time of this publication if the Chief Magistrate has sent in his response to the query.
Genesis of the trouble
The arrest and detention order was a sequel to case No. CM/G/17/0/2024 based on allegations of “false and criminal defamatory publications” by Joseph in some online media, including MEDIATRACNET Nigeria, against Zinox Technologies Limited.
In its Particulars of Complaint, Zinox had listed the publications to include: “N170.3m FIRS Contract Fraud: How AGF Malami gave safe passage to Zinox Chairman, wife, 11 other suspects” and “N170.3m FIRS Contract Fraud: You are a compulsive liar, Citadel Oracle MD replies Zinox Chairman”, published in MEDIATRACNET, as well as another titled: “Police Prosecutor, Lough SAN, faces LPPC panel over alleged misconduct charges for shielding Zinox officials in N170m fraud case”, published in another platform.
Zinox claimed the complaint followed statements credited to Joseph in the publications criticizing the withdrawal of Charge No. FCT/HC/CR/469/2022 filed by human rights lawyer, Femi Falala of Falana & Falana against the Chairman of Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, his wife, Chioma, and 11 others, over their alleged involvement in a N170.3m Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) contract fraud in 2012.
Their lawyers, led by a certain Terkaa J. Aondo, further claimed the statements not only amounted to serious libel with criminal imputation against their client but also false and defamatory to their client’s reputation, contrary to Section 391(1) and punishable under Section 392 of the Penal Code.
Nasarawa Court notorious for cash & carry judgments
With Gwahemba’s suspension pending further disciplinary actions by the JSC, it appears Nasarawa Chief Magistrate Court, Karu is assuming a notorious status as a cheap market where Zinox routinely procures cheap judgments against its perceived enemies.
On February 3, 2023, Zinox filed a similar Direct Criminal Complaint in case No. CM/C/28/2023 at the same court against our reporter. The particulars of complaints filed by the same six-man legal team led by the same Terka J. Aondo, Esq. made similar allegations against our reporter over a report titled: “N170.3m FIRS Contract Fraud: How AGF Malami gave safe passage to Zinox Chairman, wife, 11 other suspects” published in MEDIATRACNET on November 9, 2022.
The complaint was, perhaps, a follow-up to an earlier threat contained in a letter by one Mathew Burkaa, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who, on December 8, 2022, wrote to our reporter to demand a retraction of the report and publication of an apology within seven days.
Burkaa, who said his legal firm, Mathew Burkaa & Co., were Solicitors to Leo Stan Ekeh, asked for damages, including exemplary damages of N10bn for defamation.
He also asked the court to grant an injunction restraining further publication, apart from an order to compel MEDIATRACNET to retract the publication, publish an apology in three national dailies, and cause publication to be deleted from our website.
Despite obviously lacking the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the case No NSD/MG156/2023 over the crime purportedly committed within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the presiding judge of Mararaba Gurku High Court 1, DD Adeck, insisted on the trial.
The application for a judicial by MEDIATRACNET legal team led by Tosin Ojjaoma Esq, with Olatunde Ojaomo Esq supported by Destiny Abah Esq, for the Judge to either quash the proceedings of the Magistrate Court, Karu, or transfer the case to a court of competent jurisdictions, was dismissed.
It is instructive to note that the judge had admitted in his ruling that when the case was pending he indeed on one occasion met with one of the lawyers representing Zinox in his office without the other parties’ lawyers, an issue that raised potent fears about his complete independence to handle the case. A notice of appeal has since been filed over the ruling.
But all that could become a nullity, particularly as recent reports have it that the incumbent Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, already restored the Fiat to Femi Falana, SAN, to proceed with the prosecution of the Zinox top officials.
On May 10, 2022, then AGF, Abubakar Malami, approved Falana’s November 2018 request for Fiat to prosecute the suspects in the N170.3m contract fraud involving the FIRS contract.
Although Falana, on September 9, 2022, filed a 17-count charge against 13 suspects at the High Court of the FCT, their arraignment before Justice C. O. Oba, of the FCT High Court, Apo, on November 8, 2022, was cancelled at the last minute, as a letter dated October 28, 2022, signed by the DPP Babadoko Abubakar, conveyed the directive for the withdrawal of the Fiat earlier granted Falana and termination of the trial.
It was the reportage of the sudden and unexpected withdrawal of Fiat and the circumstances around the decision that resulted in legal action by Zinox, which accused our reporter of false and defamatory publication.
