Lagos Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), on Monday rejected certain claims by a now retired judge of the Federal High Court, Lagos, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, in his widely reported valedictory speech.
Okeke had at his valedictory session, accused a Supreme Court judge, Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, of trying to influence his decision in a case involving Falana's clients.
He had claimed it was his resistance to Ogunbiyi's influence that earned him a caution by the National Judicial Council.
However, Falana said in a statement on Monday that contrary to Okeke's claim, the petition was not written to the NJC by him or his Chambers, but by his clients who he said were aggrieved by Okeke's handling of their case.
Falana said given the number of other petitions written against the former judge, he (Okeke) was only lucky to have only been merely warned by the NJC before he retired from the bench.
The human rights lawyer said, "The judge also deliberately refused to give our clients any date to entertain our clients' motion for leave to appeal and stay of further execution of the interim order.
"Suffice it to say that Justice Okeke is lucky that he was only cautioned by the National Judicial Council before his retirement from the bench."
He also said neither he nor his Chambers was a counsel for former Manager Director of the defunct Oceanic Bank Plc, Mrs Cecilia Ibru, whose part of the property she allegedly forfeited upon her conviction, was the subject matter before Okeke.
The legal dispute was between Falana's clients and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.
The statement read in part, "We wish to state, without any fear of contradiction, that contrary to Justice Okeke's allegation we did not file any application on behalf of Dr. (Mrs.) Cecilia Ibru before him or any other judge in the Federal High Court.
"To that extent, neither Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) nor his Chambers wrote any petition against the retired Justice Okeke. However, the petition was written by our clients, the owners of the property lying and being at 5A George Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, who were illegally ejected therefrom through an ex parte order granted by Justice Okeke. Though, the petition did not emanate from our Chambers we fully agree with its contents."
