APC Chieftain Dragged To Court Over Controversial Facebook Post

Joe Igbokwe has been sued by a Lagos-based lawyer over his criticisms of the judiciary via his social media page.
Activist Lagos-based lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking the prosecution of the Lagos spokesman of the All Progressives Congress, Joe Igbokwe, over an allegedly offensive Facebook post recently made by the latter.

Adegboruwa said that Igbokwe, on July 16, 2018, at about 3.20pm, posted on his (Igbokwe’s) Facebook wall that “Wike will not have the audacity and temerity to kill again in Rivers State and run to the Supreme Court to buy justice. It will never happen again in Nigeria where Buhari is the President.”

Adegboruwa, in his suit filed on Friday, claimed that Igbokwe disparaged the judiciary, alleging that the Facebook post was capable of eroding public confidence in the court.

He is seeking a court order compelling the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who was joined as a co-defendant with Igbokwe in the suit, to invite the APC spokesman to substantiate his claim that the apex court sold justice to the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, failing which he (Igbokwe) should be prosecuted.

According to Adegboruwa, following the alleged post by Igbokwe, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, invited security agencies to probe the alleged selling of justice to Wike.

The CJN, according to him, asked the security agencies to identify the culpable apex court Justices if the allegation is true or to take steps to prosecute Igbokwe if it turns out that the allegation is false.

Adegboruwa said Wike, on his part, through the Rivers State Government, had demanded explanation from Igbokwe, with a threat of legal action.

In a 32-paragraph affidavit he filed in support of his suit, Adegboruwa claimed that the alleged post by Igbokwe was capable of being interpreted by the public to mean that “the judiciary in Nigeria, and, indeed, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is corrupt; that there is no transparent system of justice administration in Nigeria, especially in the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Adegboruwa is contending that the alleged Facebook post by Igbokwe would create a situation where “lawyers would lose patronage and would no longer be able to handle cases in court, given that it is now possible to buy justice with money.”

He urged the court to compel the AGF to take steps to prosecute Igbokwe.

He is also asking the court to sack Igbokwe as the General Manager of the Lagos State Wharf Land Fee Collecting Authority and to declare him as a person not fit and proper to be elected or appointed into any public office in any part of Nigeria.

The suit has yet to be assigned to any judge.

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