Judge blasts NERC boss for allegedly lying against judicial officers

JUSTICE Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court, Lagos, yesterday descended heavily on the Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sam Amadi, for having the “audacity and courage” to lie against judicial officers in a petition he addressed to the Chief Judge (CJ) of the court, Justice Ibrahim Auta.

The judge, obviously unhappy with the development, described Amadi’s action as reckless, senseless and stupid exercise of executive powers, and an attempt to intimidate and distract the court.

Amadi had, in a petition to Justice Auta, accused judges of the court of frustrating the reforms in the power sector with various “reckless and ill-informed interim injunctions.”

He had made specific reference to an order made by Justice Idris in a suit filed by a lawyer, Toluwani Yemi Adebiyi, challenging the planned increment in electricity tariff.

The judge had issued an ex-parte order asking parties to maintain status quo in respect of the planned tariff increment pending the determination of the suit.

But Amadi, in his petition, allegedly quoted a completely different order from that which the court made, a development, which enraged the judge.

Adebiyi, the plaintiff in the matter in response to the petition filed Form 48 (notice of consequence of contempt of court) against Amadi, stating that the NERC boss should be punished for bringing the court to disrepute.

When the matter came up on Wednesday, Adebiyi had attempted to brief the court on the development in the matter since the last adjourned date but he was frequently interjected by NERC’s counsel, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), who urged the court to ignore all the “distractions” and concentrate on hearing the substantive suit.

Idigbe said the suit was very important because it would allow the court to make judicial pronouncement on the administrative and executive reforms carried out in the power sector so far where the sector had been moved from monopolistic to market-driven sector.

Amadi’s counsel, Edwin Anikwem, objected to the Form 48 filed against his client.

The judge said while he was out of the country for vacation, he received a call drawing his attention to a newspaper publication about the petition written by Amadi to the CJ.

He said upon returning to the country, the CJ circulated the petition to all the judges of the court and it was at this stage that he thought of where Amadi got the courage and audacity to lie in the petition by quoting an order that was never made by him.

He said: “I don’t know where the author of the petition got his information from. The first thing that came to my mind was where did he get the courage and audacity to lie against me and even copying the Vice President (VP) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Minister of Power in the petition he addressed to the CJ?

“I began to wonder the stupid and reckless audacity of Amadi to write such petition and copied the VP and Power Ministry. I was very upset because it was nothing but reckless, stupid and senseless exercise of executive powers, which was clearly intended to intimidate the court.

“But I tell you, this court can never be intimidated. Never! I can never be intimidated and I can never be distracted. Without the Form 48, I can even order Amadi to come and explain the content of his petition. I’m not saying that people cannot complain about what we do here, but certainly not to clearly lie against us.”

The judge, however, pleaded with Adebiyi to withdraw the Form 48 against Amadi, saying that the polity had been heated up lately about orders of arrest, and that he would not like to join the fray.

He added: “It is not my style and I want to plead with lawyers to save me from that hurdle. But Amadi should be warned not to play politics with matters in court. They should leave the court out of politics and allow us to deal with substantial justice.”

Meanwhile, Adebiyi, who was not pleased with the judge’s position on withdrawal of Form 48, said the change that Nigerians have been yearning for would not come “if the courts would continue to allow people like Amadi to get away with such acts of contempt.”

He said despite the interim order against electricity tariff increment, NERC had been making secret moves to effect the increment, and that there was the need for the court to make example of the defendant.

Adebiyi, however, reluctantly withdrew the Form 48, after which same was struck out.

On his part, Idigbe tendered unreserved apology to the judge for Amadi’s action, adding that he could personally vouch for the integrity of the judge.

“I have the greatest confidence in your lordship. The parties to litigation are sometimes emotional and they do things wrongly. I publicly give my apology on behalf of NERC and Dr. Amadi for errors contained in the petition,” Idigbe said,

He said he would personally write the NERC Chairman to also apologise to the court.

Besides, the court also granted an application by electricity distribution companies to join the suit as co-defendants.