By SIMON EBEGBULEM
BENIN—A Federal High Court sitting in Benin City, Edo State, Monday, ordered the remand of the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in Edo State, Dr Osagie Obayuwana, in prison custody.
This followed alleged failure by the state government to comply with an order the court gave in a suit between the state’s Bendel Brewery and a private investor, Churchgate Industries Limited.
Trial judge, Justice Adamu Hobon, in his ruling, ordered that Obayuwana be remanded in prison custody until the state government was able to provide an affidavit of compliance, following an earlier order by the court directing the state government to comply with an order sought and obtained by Churchgate.
Efforts to reach the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Louis Odion, failed, yesterday as he did not pick repeated calls put across to his line. The judge later adjourned hearing in the substantive suit till March 20.
It will be recalled that the court had last week issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the Attorney-General of Edo State. Lawyers at the court, yesterday, tried to intervene on behalf of the AG, who claimed he did not receive any copy of the injunction. But Justice Hobon, insisted that government should be held responsible for its disobedience to the order and that the AG was a representative of the government in court.
He said the state government only filed a notice of appeal in against the injunction but the appeal was not entered properly, adding that it was a ploy to delay court process.
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Federal High Court remands Edo AG