The Federal Capital Territory High Court’s Justice Keziah Ogbonnaya has refused to disqualify herself from a libel claim filed by an ex-Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama.
Mr Onyeama had sued Lillian Onoh, a career ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for libel, alleging that she had defamed him in a series of memos she sent to him when he was the minister.
Mrs Onoh, on the other hand, accused the Judge of bias and urged her to discontinue hearing the case.
At the resumed hearing, Mrs. Onoh’s counsel, Richard Aneke, asked the judge to disqualify herself from the case based on his client’s request.
Mr Aneke drew Justice Ogbonnaya’s attention to a pending petition before the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, seeking a reassignment of the case to another judge.
Ms Onoh also petitioned the National Judicial Council, asking it to discipline Justice Ogbonnaya for being overtly partial in her handling of the suit.
Her grouse is that she hails from Enugu State, where Mr Onyeama comes from.
The defendant also contended that Mr Onyeama had hatched a plan with the judge to rob her of justice.
In a ruling, Justice Ogbonnaya said she was assigned the suit by the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Hussein Baba-Yusuf.
The defendant had accused Mr Onyeama of influencing the transfer of the case from Justice Eleojo Enenche to Justice Ogbonnaya, with a view to getting a favourable decision.
Counsel for Mr Onyeama, Agada Elachi, expressed surprise at Ms Onoh’s allegation of bias against the judge.
He added that she has never had any opportunity of witnessing the Judge conduct proceedings to show that the court is biased.
Mr Elachi argued that there was no legal basis for Justice Ogbonnaya to recuse herself from continuing to hear the case.
He further contended that Ms Onoh’s petition was “a ploy to frustrate the hearing of this matter.”
While acknowledging that it was within the Chief Judge’s purview to consider the petition, Mr Elachi contended that “there is no law that requires the Judge to stop proceedings in this matter.