A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Wuse Zone 6, Abuja has adjourned till July 3, 2024 to rule on an application challenging its jurisdiction to entertain the criminal complaints against two staff members of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA) who were accused of forgery.
At the proceedings on Tuesday, counsel to the two OGFZA staff, Mr Michael Ajara moved a motion filed on November 1, 2023 challenging the jurisdiction of the court sitting in Abuja to handle a case, which caused of action took place in Onne, Port-Harcourt in Rivers state.
Ajara urged the court to dismiss the direct criminal complaints preferred against his clients and added that, “This matter, having emanated in Port-Harcourt, this court has no jurisdiction”, and tendered three documents showing that the alleged offences happened in Port-Harcourt in 2011.
Opposing the motion, counsel to the complainant/respondent, Mr. Nathaniel Nwoke prayed the court to discountenance the submissions of the counsel to the defendant/applicant.
He said, even though the alleged offence was committed at OGFZA in Port-Harcourt, the mere entrance of the defendants in Abuja, confers jurisdiction on the court to entertain the matter.
“In criminal matter, Nigeria is divided into Southern and Northern region. If an offence is committed in the South and the defendant enters the North, the court in the North has the jurisdiction on the matter and vice versa.
“This court has the jurisdiction, even other courts in Northern Nigeria to entertain this matter by the provision of the penal code of Northern Nigeria”, he argued adding that, the headquarters of OGFZA is in Maitama, Abuja and not Onne in Rivers state as claimed by the defendants’ counsel.
After hearing arguments on the jurisdiction of the court to handle the matter, Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna adjourned till July 3 to deliver ruling.
The two OGFZA officials, Mr. Wasiu Sule, the Head of Legal Services and Secretary to OGFZA’s Board and Mr. Alenju Ngofa, the Head of Human Resources of the organisation, who are the first and second defendants, are accused of falsification of documents.
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OGFZA and the nominal complainant, Olufunmilayo David Omosule, had been locked in a legal battle over the legality or otherwise of his suspension following his petition against some management staff of the agency over alleged corruption.
Omosule had alleged that the defendants wilfully and maliciously distorted his records “to appear as though he does not possess any requisite qualification to be employed at OGFZA or any qualification at all to be considered for promotion.”
The agency had, via a letter dated April 18, 2011, suspended Omosule as the manager of its Abuja office on the grounds that he refused to comply with its letter dated December 3, 2010, which had directed him to present the originals of his credentials for verification.
Omosule, however, refuted the claim of the authority, stating that he made available to the organisation Certified True Copies (CTCs) of his educational certificates and credentials, including GCE ‘O Level and degree certificates, as instructed.
He had claimed that the originals of his credentials were misplaced in untraceable circumstances as at 2010 when the request to submit them was made, and averred that the CTCs of his certificates submitted to the agency were certified by the issuing institutions, which included the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the University of Ado-Ekiti, then Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti, respectively.
The claimant is therefore seeking a declaration that he was still a staff member of the organisation and entitled to all the rights, privileges, and benefits due to him because of his employment.
He is praying to the court for an order directing the defendants to reinstate him to the position of a director on grade level 17, a position he claimed his contemporaries were currently in, as well as an order directing the agency to pay all his outstanding salaries, benefits, and entitlements since 2011.
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