Nigeria: Justice Olotu - Upending the Supreme Court?

24 January 2013
opinion

If the two senators and nine members of National Assembly from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) could have sense some jeopardy if they had studied the antecedents of Justice Gladys Olotu of the Federal High Court, when the case of their political opponents, already decided conclusively by the Supreme Court, was assigned to her. They could have been confident that the hallowed principles of judicial adherence to precedence, plus the finality of Supreme Court verdicts, would be respected and upheld by the judge. Today the embattled CPC legislators know better. The peculiar perambulations that overrode judicial principles in madam's court are now grounds for them to ponder over their predicament. The fact that the judge postponed the date for delivering her verdict three times before unleashing it was definitely ominous. Perhaps it is cold comfort for them that they are not the first to come under such baptism of (in) justice!

Justice Gladys Olotu then of the Federal High Court Uyo Judicial Division set aside and overruled the Supreme Court verdict in the case suit no: FHC/UY/CS/47/2003 of patent right infringement litigation between CCNL AND MPNU (Mobil). The matter had been taken to the Supreme Court and struck out yet it was not only entertained by Justice Olotu but she even made pronouncements on the issues that were struck out by the Supreme Court. Outrageously, she admitted allegations against a party (MPNU) which were denied by the same party (MPNU) only to give judgment against the party that made the allegation (CCNL)!

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