Justice S. Seidu of a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers
State, has imposed a fine of N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira only) on former
First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, for withdrawing a suit instituted against
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Jonathan, in the suit, sought an order of the court for the
"enforcement of her fundamental human rights to own property, fair
hearing, human dignity, private and family life and freedom from
discrimination".
In a defence led by I. A. Adedipe, SAN, she prayed the court
to retrain the EFCC from encroaching on those "rights". Prosecution
counsel, Kayode Oni, faulted Jonathan on her prayers before the court, arguing
that her suit was an abuse of court processes.
At the resumption of hearing on the matter on Monday, one of
the defence counsels, Sammie Somiari, addressed the court on a notice of
discontinuance of the suit, saying that he had an instruction of his client to
discontinue the matter.
He said that an application had been filed before the court
to that effect.
Counsel to the EFCC submitted that Mrs. Jonathan has a right
of discontinuance but pressed for a charge of N500,000( Five Hundred Thousand
Naira only) as costs of filing processes in response to the suit.
Justice Seidu struck out the suit and awarded a cost of
N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira only) as a fine against Jonathan.
Dame Patience Jonathan instituted the suit against the EFCC
in February, 2017.
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