Nigeria - the next part of why this journal was initiated

LAGOS—An Ikeja High Court, yesterday, turned down Rear-Admiral Harry Arogundade and the Nigerian Navys’ prayer asking the court to stay execution of the N100 million judgment secured against them over the molestation of Miss Uzoma Okere and Mr. Abdulahi Abdulazeez last year.

Four naval ratings, C.I. Jeremiah, S.A. Bullem, S.A. Kaniga and Francis Okolaogu, assaulted Miss Okere and Abdulazeez on November 5, 2008, for allegedly delaying them in traffic in Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, while on the convoy of Arogundade.

Justice Opeyemi Oke, in her ruling in an application filed by Arogundade and the Navy asking for a stay of execution of the judgment pending their appeal, held that she had ordered that all processes should be served at the last hearing. She upheld the arguments of the counsel and consequently struck out the application. She directed them (Navy and Arogundade) to pay the judgment debt of N100m due to Okere and Abdulazeez to a reputable bank through the Registrar of the court as earlier ruled.

She held that: “It is apparent that the judgment creditors who filed a notice of stay of execution of judgment are not ready for the case to go on. The fourth and the fifth judgment debtor filed a notice of stay of execution of judgment and this was made known to all counsel present in court that day.

Since they have refused to serve the necessary processes to all involved, it is clear they are not serious with their application. The case is hereby struck out.”
When the case came up for hearing yesterday, Okere’s counsel, Jonathan Ogunsanya, from the Office of the Public Defender, OPD, urged the court to strike out the motion for stay of execution for lack of diligent prosecution.