JUSTICE:The Supreme Court Decides Bode George Appeals December 13-2013.

The Supreme Court will on December 31,
2013, deliver judgment in an appeal filed by
a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party,
Chief Bode George, to set aside his
conviction by a Lagos State High Court in
2009.

A panel of the apex court set the date on
Thursday after hearing the appeal, in which
George and five others asked it to set aside
their conviction and the sentence of two
years imprisonment imposed on them by
the Lagos State High Court.

George, the Chairman of the Nigerian Ports
Authority between 2001 and 2003, was tried
and convicted by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission alongside
former directors of the NPA, including
Alhaji Aminu Dabo, Captain Oluwasegun
Abidoye, Alhaji Abdulahi Aminu Tafida,
Alhaji Zanna Maidaribe and Mr. Sule Aliyu,
over offences bordering on corruption,
inflation of contracts and contracts
splitting.

The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal
affirmed the conviction and sentence,
ruling that George and the others were
properly charged and convicted under the
relevant laws of Lagos State.

Though, they have already served the
sentence imposed on them by the court,
George and the others have approached
the Supreme Court with an appeal to
challenge their conviction.

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At the hearing in the appeal on Thursday,
counsel to George and the other appellants,
Kanu Agabi, SAN, and Joseph Daudu, SAN,
insisted that their clients were wrongfully
convicted and sentenced.

They argued that the Lagos State High
Court lacked the jurisdiction to try their
clients.

According to them, their clients should have
been tried by a Federal High Court, instead
of the Lagos High Court.

“The Lagos State High Court has no
jurisdiction over the offences, the
appropriate court to have gone to would
have been the FHC, the NPA being an
institution created by a statute of the
National Assembly.

“I urge your lordships to hold that the trial
should have been before a FHC, that
having not done so, the entire proceeding
is a nullity,” Daudu said.

The appellants’ counsel further argued
that, even if the Lagos State High Court had
the jurisdiction to try the offences, the
prosecution did not prove its claim that
their clients were guilty of contracts
splitting.

They equally argued that the trial court
erred in upholding the prosecution’s
allegation that their clients were guilty of
disobedience of a lawful order, which they
described as an “anachronistic offence.”
“It is a complete no trial – I urge your
lordships to hold that, apart from the fact
that the Court of Appeal did not consider
the issue of constitutionality, the entire trial
was a breach of the Nigerian constitution.

“The nature of the disobedience of a lawful
order must be criminalised by the National
Assembly.

“If the main offences were not proved,
there is no way conspiracy could have been
proved,” Daudu added.

In the same vein, Agabi noted that the
prosecution had to dismiss the evidence of
some of its witnesses, which absolved the
accused persons of contracts splitting.

At the end of the argument, the Supreme
Court panel, headed by Justice Tanko
Mohammed, adjourned to December 13,
2013, to deliver judgment.