Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has summoned the Ogun State House of Assembly to show cause within seven days, why it should not be restrained from proceeding with the case by the former Managing Director of the Ogun State Property Investment Corporation (OPIC) Mr Jide Odusolu.
The judge made the order on Monday sequel to a motion moved by Odusolu’s counsel, Adetunji Adedoyin-Adeniyi.
Odusolu’s counsel argued on why the court should grant the interim reliefs contained in his client’s motion ex parte.
However, the court ordered the respondents in the suit to show cause upon being served with the order and the court processes, why they should not be restrained in line with the interim reliefs sought by the plaintiff.
The respondents in the suit are the Inspector-General of Police, Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 2, Commissioner of Police in Ogun, the state House of Assembly, and the clerk of the Assembly.
On September 21, 2012, the Assembly had during its plenary purportedly adopted the report of its Committee on Anti-Corruption and Public Accounts which investigated the finances of OPIC and discovered huge sums of money allegedly missing from the agency’s accounts.
But Odusolu filed a suit before the court, seeking a declaration that the proceedings of the Assembly and the report of the committee which it purportedly adopted constituted an infringement on his fundamental right to a fair hearing.
He also sought a declaration that the Assembly lacked the competence to investigate the alleged crime and that the chairman of the committee was himself an interested party who served together with Odusolu in the previous administration and even inspected some OPIC projects, which he later claimed have not been executed.
Odusolu also asked the court to grant an order of injunction to restrain the Assembly from deploying the report to initiate any criminal complaint against him before the police and to restrain the police from acting on the said report, pending the hearing and final determination of the suit before it.
In a 40-paragraph affidavit deposed to by the plaintiff, he traced the series of projects executed by OPIC, adding that the accounts of OPIC have been audited by professionals and no fund was missing at all.
Justice Lifu adjourned the matter until November 1 for hearing.
