Edo attorney-general jailed for comtempt

THE Federal High Court 1 sitting in Benin City, Edo State capital, on Monday, ordered the remand of the state Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Osagie Obayuwana, over the non-compliance of the state government with an interlocutory injunction it gave in a suit involving it and a private investor, Churchgate Industries Limited.The suit was in respect of a dispute over the state owned Bendel Breweries Limited.The presiding judge, Justice Adamu Hobon, in a ruling following the bench warrant which the court issued last week for the arrest of the attorney- general ordered that Obayuwana be remanded in prison custody until the state government was able to provide an affidavit of compliance with an order the court had earlier issued directing the state government to comply with an interlocutory injunction sought and got by Churchgate.Attempts to reach the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Louis Odion, failed as he did not pick repeated calls put across to his line.The judge later adjourned the substantive suit till March 20.Some lawyers in the court, on Monday, tried to intervene on behalf of the attorney-general, who claimed he did not receive any copy of the injunction.Hobon said government should be held responsible for its disobedience of the order and that the attorney- general was a representative of the government in court.According to Hobon, the state government only filed a notice of appeal in the trial court against the injunction but the appeal was not entered properly, saying it was a ploy to delay court process.Shortly after the end of proceedings, some senior government officials were sighted at the court premises apparently to seek any possibility of reversal of the court's order.Churchgate had instituted its suit to challenge the alleged arbitrary and illegal action of Edo State government in forcibly ejecting it from the management of the Bendel Brewery on June 17, 2003.In issuing the bench warrant last week, Justice Hobon ordered Edo State Commissioner of Police to ensure that the order was complied forthwith. The case was further adjourned to yesterday (Monday) for hearing of the committal proceedings.Bendel Breweries Limited was previously owned and managed by Edo State government before it became insolvent following alleged mismanagement while under government control and had to be closed down.The management of the breweries was later ceded to Churchgate Industries through a management agreement with the Edo State government in 1992, following which Churchgate reactivated the then moribund brewery, recalled its staff and resumed production activities.
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