The immediate past Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo SAN has appealed against the ruling of Federal High Court, Abuja which dismissed his suit against seeking investigation on former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on alleged misappropriation of public funds over Special Purpose Vehicles SPV.
Keyamo declared that Justice Omotosho erred in his ruling, as the judgment was against the weight of evidence.
Justice JK Omotosho of Federal High Court Abuja had in a ruling Monday dismissed Keyamo’s suit, accusing the former Minister of abusing the Court processes and subsequently awarding him fine of N5 million each, in favour of Atiku and the third respondent in the suit.
In the Notice of Appeal filed by his Lawyer, Okechukwu C. Uju-Azorji, Keyamo’s three reliefs include: an order setting aside Justice Omotosho’s ruling.
Similarly, the former Minister sought an order reverting suit with reference No: FHC/ABJ/CV84/2023 between him, Atiku and three others to the Federal High Court in Abuja for hearing and determination on the merits of the suit before another Judge of the Federal High Court.
He is also seeking for any other order (s) which the Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of the appeal.
Keyamo, in the notice, pointed out four grounds for his appeal and inherent errors in each.
He argued that Justice Omotosho erred when his Court dismissed the Appellant’s suit on the ground that the 72 hours ultimatum given to the second to fourth respondents in the Appellant’s letter of January 16, 2023 “was unreasonable”.
Among the error on this ground he established was the fact that none of the parties raised the issue that the time given by the Appellant was short in the circumstances of the suit.
The second ground according to the Notice obtained by The Eagle online was that the award of N5 million in favour of first and third respondents by the High Court was done “judicially” and “judiciously” in the circumstance of the case. The error pointed out by the ex-Minister Counsel was that the suit instituted by the Appellant is of public interest litigation, hence, did not have any personal benefit to derive from the success of the suit.
Keyamo’s third Appeal ground is that Justice Omotosho erred when the Court relied on theAppellant’s letter to the second to fourth Respondents of January 16, 2023 to hold that the suit of the plaintiff is frivolous, vexations and abuse of Court processes.
He identified error in this, arguing that the Appellant’s letter of January 16, 2023 to the second to fourth was merely attached to the Appellant Writ of Summon in line with the Rules of Court “to frontload documents to be relied upon but was not yet admitted into evidence”.
The former Minister declared that the fourth ground of his Appeal is that Justice Omotosho’s ruling “is against the weight of evidence”.
Recall that Keyamo approached Court after sourcing the information of alleged financial misconduct from a whistleblower who claimed to be a former aide to former VP, Atiku.
Meanwhile, a press statement issued alongside the notice and signed by an Assistant Head, Keyamo Law Firm, John Ainetor stressed that Keyamo has a rich history of taking it upon himself to challenge unconstitutionality, corruption and the breach of the rule of law by public officials.
“Like ALL lawyers from time immemorial, he has won some, lost some and some are still pending in court. That is what the struggle is all about. And that is THE SAME SITUATION with our legal icons of blessed memories.
“This case is not an exception. The battle will be taken all the way to the apex court. Mr. Keyamo is not about to back down now”.