Mr Onyema had sued a career ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lilian Onoh, who is also a sister to his former wife, for libel, alleging that she defamed him in a series of memos she sent to him while he was the minister.
A libel suit filed by a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, against a civil servant in his former ministry has reopened old family feud between him and his former wife.
Mr Onyema had sued Lilian Onoh, a career ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is also a sister to his former wife, for libel, alleging that she defamed him in a series media publications accusing him of corruption.
Ms Onoh, a former Nigeria's ambassador to Namibia, was said to have accused Mr Onyeama in a series of memos she sent to him as minister in February 2021, of superintending over corruption-ridden foreign affairs ministry. Mr Onyema was the Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2015 and 2023.
She alleged large-scale stealing by staff members of the foreign service of funds belonging to Nigerian embassies and high commissions.
The critical memos were published in the media, a development that angered Mr Onyeama to institute a defamation case against Ms Onoh and the media outlets for amplifying the issues.
He sued her for libel at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja.
But displeased with some developments in the course of hearing of the case, Ms Onoh has sent a petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC), the body concerned with appointment and discipline of Nigerian judges, accusing the judge in charge of the libel suit, Keziah Ogbonnaya, of bias in her handling of the case.
Ms Onoh, a daughter of a former governor of old Anambra State, Christian Onoh, portrayed the suit in her petition to the NJC as an extension of the lingering bitterness of the circumstances of the separation between Mr Onyema and her sister, Nuzo Onoh.
She also tied her perceived unsavoury developments in the case to old political rivalry between her father, a former governor of the old Anambra State, and a former Enugu State governor, in whose law firm, Ms Ogbonnaya, the judge hearing the libel case, had earlier practised law.
Grouse with judge begins
The libel suit first came up before Eleojo Enenche, a judge of the FCT High Court, where Ms Onoh alleged that Mr Onyeama ''obtained a peculiar order to serve court processes'' on her, but instead served the said court documents on himself through his own office,'' enabling him to reach the stage of definite hearing without her knowledge.
She also alleged that Mr Enenche granted Mr Onyeama's request barring her from ''defaming'' the ex-minister without hearing from her to ascertain whether Mr Onyeama had been defamed.
Thereafter, the former minister ''inexplicably moved the case from'' Mr Enenche to Justice Keziah N. Ogbonnaya'' at the Zuba division of the FCT High Court,'' the petition dated 18 November 2023, disclosed.
PREMIUM TIMES obtained a copy of the petition addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola, who doubles as chairman of the NJC.
According to the complaint, Ms Onoh, whose sister was married to Mr Onyeama before the marriage crashed decades ago, said she only received a WhatsApp message on 4 July 2023, from a court official intimating her about a hearing of the suit billed for 6 July.
The petitioner said her first lawyer, S.G Kekere-Akpe, secured an adjournment based on the fact that he had just been briefed about the case. But Ms Ogbonnaya ordered service of court filings on the lawyer on 7 July in the courtroom.
After the first appearance, Mr Kekere-Akpe could not continue with the matter owing to ''heavy workload'' in his law firm, the petition stated.
Following the lawyer's withdrawal from the suit, Ms Onoh said, she was tasked with procuring the services of another lawyer from her base in the United States.
Trouble reportedly started when Ms Ogbonnaya allegedly refused Ms Onoh's new lawyer Richard Aneke's application for a two-week adjournment to enable him acquaint himself with the facts of the case.
Mr Aneke had announced appearance in the case for Ms Onoh on 21 September, after the court resumed from its annual vacation.
''The Hon. Justice Ogbonnaya refused Barrister Aneke's request for mere weeks after casting aspersions on me for not being better prepared and gave only seven working days,'' the petition read.
Ms Onoh said the judge did not stop at rejecting the two-week adjournment request, but imposed a N100,000 fine on her, following an application by Mr Onyeama's lawyer for a N1 million fine.
''Not only was the fine unwarranted in light of the fact that Mr Geoffrey Onyeama was the plaintiff who had been collecting and hiding all the court processes meant for me,'' she stated.
'Acts of bias and misconduct'
Chronicling various other alleged acts of bias in Ms Ogbonnaya's adjudication of the cases, Ms Onoh recalled how the judge outrightly declined her lawyer's request for an adjournment on 9 October.
According to the petitioner, her lawyer, Mr Aneke, while in court just before Ms Ogbonnaya began the day's proceedings on 9 October, received a distress call from his pregnant wife who was ill, prompting a request for another adjournment.
After refusing to reschedule the case on the ground that Ms Onoh's lawyer could be lying about his wife's ill-health, Ms Ogbonnaya directed Mr Onyeama, who was in court, to ''proceed with his testimony after further berating and belittling my counsel and mocking his wife's medical trauma.''
She further said the judge could not hide her bias as she took over Mr Onyeama's case as the plaintiff's lawyer to lead the former foreign minister in his responses to the petitioner's lawyer's cross-examination, triggering murmurs from litigants and other lawyers at the hearing.
''She overrode all objections by my counsel and took it upon herself to look for and present the legal references on which she based her arguments favouring Mr Onyeama without Mr Onyeama's lawyer's needing to do any work other than watch her do their work.''
In another instance, Ms Onoh said the judge refused to rule on an application by Mr Aneke challenging the competence of Mr Onyeama's suit.
Mr Aneke had argued that Mr Onyeama lacked the right to institute the suit on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs by making claims concerning the ministry and the office of the minister.
He said if there was any probable cause of action, it was left for the Federal Ministry of Justice to prosecute the case.
''Rather than set a date to hear the motion to strike out the case, Justice Ogbonnaya, instead, set a date for final arguments on 11 December, 2023.''
''Likewise, the Hon Justice rejected my counsel's request for a date to hear the statement of defence or the motion for electronic/remote evidence by me in line with the globally enshrined inalienable right of fair hearing.''
Ms Onoh said during cross-examination, the judge abruptly discharged Mr Onyeama from the witness stand when her lawyer ''raised the question about Mr Onyeama engaging in a witch-hunt against me because my sister had divorced him.''
''She (the judge) berated my counsel by asking how it was possible for Mr Onyeama to still be concerned with a marriage that ended in 1986 and promptly asked Mr Onyeama to step down despite the objections from my counsel.''
Old political rivalry resurfaces?
Ms Onoh traced Ms Ogbonnaya's origin to Enugu State where Mr Onyeama hails from, saying the latter ''has brazenly manipulated the judiciary of Nigeria in a bid to whitewash his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs.''
She questioned Ms Ogbonnaya's capacity to be an impartial arbiter because of her background as lawyer who started out at the law firm of Okwesikieze Nwodo, a former governor of Enugu State, whom her deceased father, Mr Onoh (former old Anambra State governor) helped install as governor but ''became an implacable foe'' of the Onoh family.
''Justice K.N Ogbonnaya was clearly attached to, and closely allied with a political family opposed to mine and was duty-bound to recuse herself when Mr Onyeama (also from Enugu State) chose to move the case from the FCT High Court in Zone 2 (Mr Enenche's court) specifically to her court in Zuba. From the onset, she was not a neutral arbiter.''
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Prayers
The petitioner said she had written to the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Hussein Baba-Yusuf, urging him to ask Ms Ogbonnaya to recuse herself from the case.
Similarly, Ms Onoh has prayed the NJC, a statutory body saddled with the responsibilities of appointment and discipline of judges, to sanction Ms Ogbonnaya for ''acts of gross misconduct that bring disrepute and ridicule to the judiciary.''
She added that Ms Ogbonnaya's conduct has eroded public confidence in the judiciary to dispense justice to all citizens before it without fear or favour.
''It would be a very sad reflection of the Nigerian judiciary if Justice K.N Ogbonnaya is permitted to continue to conduct her affairs in a manner so brazenly contemptuous of the tenets of the legal profession that it brings the entire legal community to disrepute.''
She had accused Mr Onyeama of condoning such level of heist.
Futile efforts to get judge's reaction
PREMIUM TIMES, on Monday, visited the judge's chambers at Zuba, an outskirt of Abuja, where Ms Ogbonnaya sits, to seek her reaction to Ms Onoh's petition against her.
An official of the court refused to grant access to the judge's chambers, insisting that she had decided not to speak to the press about the allegations.
''I cannot grant you access to see my lord; because she will never speak with you concerning these allegations. It is against the code of conduct for judicial officers to address journalists without official permission,'' the court official said.
Also, Mr Onyeama's lawyer, Emeka Obegolu, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview on Monday that he could not respond to specific issues in Ms Onoh's petition against the judge.
''I cannot comment on a petition that is before the NJC given that I am a counsel in the case. I don't speak for the judge, but I don't think the media should be used to blackmail judicial officers,'' Mr Obegolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said.
