Bayelsa gov’ship: Senior lawyers disagree over N60m apex court fine
There is uncertainty over the payment of N60 million cost ordered by the Supreme Court in favour of Governor Duoye Diri and his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, over the Bayelsa State governorship election review application.
The Supreme Court had on February 26 imposed the cost on Wole Olanipekun and Afe Babalola, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria, who appeared for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, David Lyon and his running mate Biobarakuma Degi Eremionyo, after their application was dismissed.
One of the governor’s aides, who sought anonymity, said the cost has not been paid to the governor and his deputy as directed by the apex court.
The aide said given the petition sent to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) by the two senior lawyers protesting the order of the Supreme Court, the lawyers may have decided not to pay and may resort to legal option to challenge the order.
“But they would still go to the same Supreme Court to give report of compliance, so I don’t know why they are trying to disobey the order of the court,” he said.
One of the lawyers, who appeared for the PDP and Governor Diri in the matter, Yunus Ustaz Usman (SAN), said he was not aware if the money had been paid.
“I am not the person the court said they should pay to, and it is not my duty to ask them,” he said.
Another senior lawyer in the matter, Chris Uche (SAN), said the beneficiaries were only allowing more time for the review applicants to pay the cost as directed by the Supreme Court.
“We are going to make a formal request for them to pay when our clients have exhausted sufficient time waiting for them to pay. Nobody has waived that payment and nobody on our side would take any steps to compromise the decision of the Supreme Court,” he said.
However, a senior lawyer who appeared with both Olanipekun and Babalola in the case, said the issue of cost may be resolved through lawyers’ understanding and cooperation.
He explained that when Babalola and Olanipekun requested the cost form for the purposes of making the payment to the beneficiaries, they declined the payment.
While reiterating their willingness to pay the cost, he added that the Supreme Court was not obligated to enforce such costs after awarding them.
He said their letter to the NBA was not a protest against the award of the cost, but to set the record straight on what happened due to the danger in a situation where lawyers are imposed with costs for filing any application requested by their clients.
“This has started playing out now, where people who file action are being imposed with costs even at magistrate court and high court levels. This is what the senior lawyers warned against,” he said.
Babalola and Olanipekun had in a letter dated March 11, 2020 sought the intervention of the NBA president, Paul Usoro (SAN), in the N60m cost imposed on them by the Supreme Court on February 26, explaining that they did no wrong other than asking the apex court to take a second look at its decision which invalidated the victory of the APC governorship candidate in Bayelsa State.