The Court of Appeal in Abuja has quashed the contempt case initiated by the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, against the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olanipekun Olukoyede, citing expiration of the orders upon which case rested as the basis for quashing it.
Bello had predicated the contempt case before a High Court of Kogi State sitting in Lokoja on interim orders earlier granted by the court, and which the High Court relied on to order Olukoyede to show cause why he should not be held for contempt.
But the EFCC boss appealed the decision.
In a judgment on Thursday, June 13, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal held that the contempt case was built on dead interim orders issued by the Kogi State High Court, sitting in Lokoja.
The Court of Appeal further held that, as at the time Bello commenced the contempt case, the interim orders, on which the contempt case rested on had expired as the High Court had already delivered its judgment on the substantive fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed by Bello.
It noted that the interim orders, having been made pending the determination of the substantive suit and the substantive suit having been determined without the lifetime of the interim orders extended in the final judgment, the interim orders were extinct as of when the contempt case was initiated.
In the lead judgment, Justice Joseph Oyewole held the trial judge failed to extend the interim orders of 9/2/2024 in its final judgment of 17/4/2024.
The court awarded N1 million cost against the respondent (Bello).
– The Nation
