Kidnapper Evans’ Lawyer Loses Court Case, To Pay N500,000 Fine

The lawyer standing for kidnap kingpin,
Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans, has
lost yet another case in court.
Evans’ counsel, Olukoya Ogungbeje, was defeated
on Friday, when Justice Ibrahim Buba of the
Federal High Court in Lagos dismissed two
fundamental rights applications filed by him,
according to an online medium, NewsMakers.
Ogungbeje had reportedly filed the case on behalf
of his clients, Messrs Chief Kenneth
Chukwuemeka Ajoku and Chidinma Ozurumba,
against the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, but it was dismissed for lack of
merit and for being frivolous.
The judge also awarded a total cost of N500,000
against the two petitioners.
Other respondents in Ajoku’s suit are a Lagos-
based lawyer, Mr. Taiwo Kupolati, Folorunsho
Sholanke, Jide Olaleye, Abraham Ogunleye, Kolade
Akinwunmi and Dr. Ishaku Danladi Msheliza.
The two petitioners, in suits marked FHC/L/
CS/736/2017 and FHC/L/CS 803/2017, had urged
the court to declare that the arrest and detention
by the operatives and agents of EFCC on May 4, at
the instigation of other respondents for taking up
the brief of his client and without cause, was
“illegal, wrongful, unlawful, and unconstitutional as
it violates the applicant’s fundamental rights as
guaranteed under sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 of
the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.”
Responding to the suits, the EFCC, in two separate
counter-affidavits deposed to by Ayodele Samuel
and Makinde Adebayo, and argued before the
court by Banjo James, urged the judge to refuse
the applicants’ applications for being frivolous and
lacking in merit.
Delivering judgment on the two applications on
Friday, Justice Buba, while dismissing the two
applications for lacking in merit and being
frivolous, awarded a total cost of N500,000
against the two applicants in favour of the EFCC
and other respondents.
Two weeks ago, Ogungbeje filed such fundamental
rights suit against police authorities in a bid to
set Evans free, claiming that the police illegally
detained the suspect who had made a series of
televised confessions on how he had kidnapped
his victims and kept them for as long as seven
months until their families coughed out as much
as $1m.
A victim’s son had revealed that his 86-year-old
father was killed by Evans and his gang after he
had paid a huge ransom.