Ozekhome Slammed With N40m Fine for Bringing Irrelevant Case Before Supreme Court

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, was fined N40 million by the Supreme Court on Tuesday for bringing insignificant, annoying, and irksome motions before the court concerning the Imo governorship contest that has been determined since 2019.

Ozekhome was fined for filing a plea with the supreme court to reinstate the lawsuit that ousted Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha in 2019.

In a verdict, Justice Tijani Abubakar mandated that the senior attorney personally pay the N40 million fine to each of the four respondents he brought before the court.

The members of the Action People’s Party (APP), Uche Nnadi, Uche Nwosu, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are the ones that have to pay.

Ozekhome had requested a subsequent order to force INEC to grant Ihedioha a new Certificate of Return so he could serve as Imo Governor for four years, but the court deemed his move frivolous.

His complaint was that Senator Hope Uzodinma, the current governor, had illegally squandered the four years that Ihedioha was supposed to serve.

Among other things, Ozekhome stated in the motion that Uzodinmma shouldn’t have been elected governor on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) because the party didn’t field a candidate in the 2019 Imo State governorship race.

The top court, however, denied the motion, stating that it lacked the authority to consider it.

The request was deemed unusual, silly, unfounded, unjustified, vexatious, and irritating by Justice Abubakar in her ruling.

He further maintained that the move was a premeditated attempt to discredit the Supreme Court.