Onnoghen's Trial: Transmission Of Record to Court Of Appeal Suffers Setback Due To Power Failure

The compilation and transmission of records of the CCT proceedings is a condition precedent for the hearing of any appeal. In an affidavit deposed to by George Ibrahim on behalf of Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and Ogwu Onoja (SAN), the lawyer said the registrar’s failure to make the certified true copy had stalled the appeal. He said, “Based on the CCT registrar’s undertaking, I immediately applied for the certified true copy of the proceedings and rulings of January 22, 2019. “As early as 8am on Wednesday, January 23, 2019, I went to the registry of the CCT to file notice of appeal and also applied for the certified true copy of the notice of appeal and also with the intention and hope of obtaining rulings and the records of proceeding earlier applied for but I was disappointed. “That I was in the CCT from 8am till 5.30pm on January 23, 2019 without obtaining the certified true copies of the rulings and records of proceedings. “That I was informed by Hajia Bintu Abubakar, the Registrar of the CCT, that although she had undertaken to make available the certified true copies of the rulings, she was unable to do so as there was no light either from the public power supply or the CCT’s generator thereby denying the appellant certified true copy of the rulings and records of January 22, 2019.” The CCT had on Monday refused to stop the trial of Onnoghen who is facing charges of false declaration of assets. The tribunal had argued that the Federal High Court and the National Industrial Court were courts of coordinate jurisdiction and thus could not grant an order restraining the CCT. The Court of Appeal on Thursday, however, ordered the CCT to stay proceedings in the case against the CJN. A panel of the Abuja division of the appeal court led by Abdul Aboki directed the tribunal to stay proceedings pending the hearing and determination of the CJN’s application. The inability of the CCT registrar to make copies available to the defence may, however, stall the appeal.]]>