Olukoya Ogungbeje, the lawyer defending
Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, the billionaire
kidnapper known as Evans, is not new to
controversies.

Ogungbeje who heads Lawflex Chambers and is the
chairman of Voice Vanguard, filed a fundamental rights
suit on behalf of Evans at the federal high court in
Lagos on Wednesday.

He accused the inspector-general of police and three
others of detaining Evans illegally.

Joined as respondents were the Nigeria police force,
commissioner of police Lagos state, and the special
anti-robbery squad, Lagos police command.

Ogungbeje is seeking a court order directing the
respondents to immediately charge his client to court if
there is any case against him.

He is in the alternative, seeking an order, compelling
the respondents to immediately release Evans
unconditionally in the absence of any offence
warranting a charged.

In the suit marked, FHC/L/CS/1012/2017, Evans is
contending that his continued detention by the
respondents since June 10, without a charge, or
release on bail is an infringement on his fundamental
rights.

He argued that the respondents ought to have
charged him to court in accordance with the provisions
of sections 35 and 36 of the constitution.

In a 27-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion
deposed to by Evan’s father, Stephen Onwuamadike, it
was averred that the applicant has been subjected to
media trial without any court’s order by the
respondents.

Onwuamadike said the media trial and news
orchestrated by the respondents have continued to
generate reactions in both print and electronic media
without his son being afforded fair hearing before a
court of law.

The deponent also averred that since his son’s arrest,
all his family members have been denied access to
him while media practitioners have been granted
unfettered access to him.

The new suit has not been assigned to any judge and
no date has been fixed for the hearing.

In April, Evans lawyer, who identified himself on
Facebook as Voice Olukoya Ogungbeje, filed a suit
asking the federal high court to stay proceedings on
the forfeiture of $43,449,947 (about N13billion),
N23,218,000 and £27,800 (about N10.6 million)
found in a flat in Ikoyi, Lagos.

He also sought an order directing the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to furnish the
court with a report of its preliminary or final
investigation on the source of the money, its owner,
and how the currencies got into the building.

Ogungbeje, in a motion on notice asked the court not
to order a permanent forfeiture of the money since
there are claims and counter-claims as to its
ownership by the Rivers state government and the
National Intelligence Agency (NIA)and since the
federal government had set up the Osinbajo panel to
find the truth about the ownership of the money.

The case did not get anywhere as the money was later
permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

Ogungbeje also once filed a suit in Lagos in 2014
asking for the reinstatement of Murtala Nyako as
governor of Adamawa state. This was after Nyako was
impeached by the state assembly in July of the same
year and the speaker of the state assembly had taken
over.

Again, the case did not go far.

Ogungbeje claimed the assembly’s alleged failure to
serve Nyako personally with the impeachment notice
violated his fundamental right to fair hearing as
enshrined under section 36 of the 1999 constitution.

TheCable