By SIMON EBEGBULEM

The people of Edo State were shocked,  Monday, when a Federal High Court in Benin, ordered the remand of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Edo State, Dr Osagie Obayuwana, in prison.

The order followed alleged failure by the state government to comply with an earlier court order in a suit between the state-owned Bendel Brewery Limited and a private investor, Churchgate Industries Limited.

The trial judge, Justice Adamu Hobon, ordered that Obayuwana be remanded in prison custody until the state government provided an affidavit of compliance to an earlier order which directed the government to comply with an order sought and got by Churchgate.

The signal that the number one legal officer in the state might fall into trouble came, when the court first issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Lawyers at the court laboured in vain to prevail on Justice Hobon to let Obayuwana go after he told the court that he did not receive any copy of the injunction.

The judge insisted that government should be held responsible for its disobedience of the order and that the AG was a representative of the government in court.

He said the state government only filed a notice of appeal before the trial court against the injunction but the appeal was not entered properly, adding that it was a ploy to delay court process.

He consequently adjourned hearing on the substantive suit till March 20, while mobile policemen, numbering over 30 moved a visibly shocked Obayuwana to the Benin prison.

Top government officials were at the court but they were helpless as the judge did not listen to their pleas. There was calm at the Edo State Government House because of the incident until bail was granted to the law officer, Thursday.

The state government’s view on the issue was aired by the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Louis Odion, who expressed shock on behalf of the state government over the way and manner the AG was sent to jail.
It was learnt that the state branch of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, met with the judge, Thursday and appealed that the AG should be released on bail.

It will be recalled that the case between the state government and Churchgate over the ownership of Bendel Brewery, according to the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Louis Odion, started in 1992, during the administration of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, when, under its privatization programme, it agreed to transfer 51 per cent of shares in Bendel Brewery to Churchgate, (an Indian company).

He said the company was then valued at N212million, “but by some yet to be explained process, the 51% of its shares were purportedly transferred to Churchgate at a value of N12.75million.”

Dissatisfied with the manner the brewery was sold and alleging breach of the 1992 agreement, the state government, under Governor Lucky Igbinedion’s administration, re-asserted control over the management of the company.  Consequently, Churchgate dragged the government before the Federal High Court and in one of the numerous interlocutory orders, the state government was ordered to hand over the brewery to Churchgate.

He said: “Dissatisfied with the said order, which amounted to a grant of the claim in the substantive suit, Edo State Government filed an appeal, which is currently pending at the Supreme Court. Sometime in October, 2011, and without the mandatory personal service of the required forms 48 and 49 as provided by the Sheriffs and the Civil Processes Act, the Federal High Court issued a bench warrant against the AG. Out of respect for the bench, the Attorney General appeared in court on January 30, to explain the difficulties of complying with the order, lack of personal service and the substantial effluxion of time and other related issues.

“In what appeared like a drama, the judge brushed aside the very pertinent issues and committed the Attorney General to prison.  It is the position of the state government that Bendel Brewery forms part of the collective patrimony of the people of Edo State, which the government was unwilling to trade for N12.75million and government intends to pursue this position to the highest court in the land.”