Court Stops Gov Otti’s Panel Of Inquiry

A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an interim injunction against the inspector-general of police (IGP), the government of Abia State and the Panel of Inquiry on Recovery of Government Properties and Funds set up in June by Governor Alex Otti.

The court granted the injunction after an application for an ex-parte motion was brought before it by C.C. Enuka, counsel to Sir Gabriel Onyendilefu and three others as applicants.

In the court papers, the court gave an “order of interim injunction restraining the respondents…from inviting, summoning, interrogating, harassing, intimidating, arresting, detaining, seizing any property belonging to the applicants or otherwise dealing adversely in any manner with the applicants, their children, any member of their families or any other person connected to the applicants insofar as it relates to the applicants’ tenure as public officers in the Abia State government between 2015 and 2023, pending the determination of the substantive originating motion on notice.”

The court also “granted for departure from Order 43 Rule 3 (2) of the High Court of Federal Capital Territory (Civil Procedure) Rule 2018 directing that the interim orders granted herein shall not lapse until the hearing and determination of the Applicant’s substantive originating motion on notice.”

The matter was adjourned to August 15, 2023 for the hearing of the substantive suit.

Governor Otti had on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, inaugurated a panel of inquiry on the recovery of government properties and funds headed by Justice Florence Ikwuoma Duruoha-Igwe (rtd).