Effiong said: “The Hon. Chief Judge then ordered me to step out of the Bar, that she was sending me to prison. She then ordered the policemen to take me to Uyo prison.”
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
A lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has been sent to jail for one month, according to a tweet on his verified Twitter handle @InibeheEffiong.
The human rights lawyer said he was handed the prison time by the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Justice Ekaette Obot.
He tweeted: “I have just been sent to Uyo prison by the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Justice Ekaette Obot, for one month for defending Leo Ekpenyong in the libel suit filed by Governor Udom Emmanuel.”
He explained what happened.
“The Chief Judge of Akwa Akwa Ibom ordered a Premium Times reporter to leave the court. I said my lord, we were thinking that since the proceeding is public, that members of the public should be allowed to observe the proceeding. My Lord asked me to proceed with cross examination.
“I obeyed. I informed the court that I was not feeling comfortable and safe having two armed mobile policemen seated inside the courtroom, that it was strange and that I felt unsafe. I applied for the judge to excuse the armed policemen from the courtroom.
“The Hon. Chief Judge then ordered me to step out of the Bar, that she was sending me to prison. She then ordered the policemen to take me to Uyo prison. And that I should be in jail for one month. I am waiting inside the courtroom for them to bring the conviction warrant.”
Effiong also said: “I will be going to the Uyo Correctional Centre now. I have not done anything. I wasn’t even given opportunity to say anything before the ‘conviction.’ Two lawyers in court appealed to the Hon. Chief Judge but my Lord insisted that I must be jailed.”
Background of the case
Governor Udom Emmanuel had sued a lawyer, Leo Ekpenyong of defamation after the lawyer accused the governor of ‘buying judgment’ for his friends from the 2019 National Assembly Election Tribunal.
The governor got a judgment of N1.5 billion from the State High Court, Uyo, which later set aside its own judgement .
The court, which was simultaneously hearing another defamation case against Leo Ekpeyong, ordered Ekpenyong to pay N150 million as damages to a former senator, Effiong Bob, whom the court says was defamed.
Both judgments were given on December 15, 2020 by Justice Ekaette Obot who is now the chief judge of Akwa Ibom State.
But Inibehe Effiong, the lawyer of Ekpenyong, challenged the two judgements, and asked the court to set them aside.
Effiong also filed another motion praying the Chief Judge to recuse herself from the case, alleging prejudice and likelihood of bias.
He said: “That is why we filed an application before this court on the 23 of June 2022 asking the Honourable Chief Judge to disqualify himself from hearing or presiding over this matter. Defendant has raised that the grounds of that application clearly stated but not limited to the fact that in the course of this proceedings my Lord has personally berated us as counsels. I have been described in venomous terms, we know that by law, a court should not address a counsel in that manner. The seeming hostility that characterized the proceedings to set aside the default judgement is discouraging.”
The judge responded: “I will send you out of there now, remove that robe and send you to prison by the time you go to the Court of Appeal and come back. What is this? You are overstepping your bounds.”