| MKO's death no longer an issue in US case against ex head of state, Oladele & Abubakar's lawyer say |
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| Written by Laolu Akande | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 04 December 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dec 4, 2007
Amidst expectations that the federal government will be making a payment running into millions of Naira to settle the human rights violation case against former head of state General Abdusalami Abubakar in a US court, a mild controversy has been set off on who and who should be the beneficiaries of the payment, Empowered Newswire reports.
A Vanguard news story two Sundays ago had reported that the federal government would be paying the Abiola family. Sources added that some leading members of the Abiola family have been making informal representations to General Abdusalami Abubakar and the presidency on the expected payment of $650,000.
However court records of the case in the US indicates that only Hafsat is involved in her own personal rights and not as a representative of the Abiola family. Infact last year June an effort by the plaintiffs to make Hafsat stand represent the Abiola Estate was dismissed by the US court as Hafsat was unable to prove that she had the authority of the Abiola Estate. It is believed that the directors of the Estate denied her such a standing.
One of the lawyers in the case who spoke on condition of anonymity wondered yesterday how it is now possible for the Abiola family to reap where they did not sow, having refused to grant Hafsat the authority then to represent the Abiola Estate.
Besides, Hafsat Abiola, Chief Anthony Enahoro and Dr. Arthur Nwankwo, the other plaintiffs in the case are the other beneficiaries of any settlement on the case, according to US court records.
In a clear reaction to the report in a national daily on the issue of who gets what, lawyers from both sides, Emeka Ugwuonye, representing General Abubakar and Kayode Oladele, representing the 3 plaintiffs signed a press statement Friday exclusively to Empowered Newswire.
Essentially the statement removed any link to Abiola's death and made clarifications on speculations about the real issues involved in the case.
For instance both lawyers said the case no longer has anything to do with Chief MKO Abiola's death since the court granted immunity to the former general for the period he was head of state, which was when Abiola died.
The lawyers said "In this case, the death of Chief MKO Abiola is no longer in issue and has not been so since June 2003, when court dismissed that portion of the case when the court granted immunity to general Abdusalami Abubakar for the time he served as Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is therefore inaccurate to suggest that General Abubakar has been found liable for the wrongful death of Chief MKO Abiola."
Also, according to the statement signed by Ugwuonye and Oladele the said report also made the following inaccurate reports:
*that the US Court has entered a judgment of liability against General Abubakar
*that the plaintiffs have expanded their claim in an effort to seek $150 million
*that there is a settlement out of court because the former head of state has already been found liable.
Both Oladele and Ugwuonye said while it is true that there is an out of court settlement, it is not driven by any finding of liability against Abubakar. Truly, the former head of state has not been find liable as yet in the case, only that the US Judge threatened to sanction him for not attending deposition hearing as scheduled.
According to them the facts include the following:
* "No court has yet entered any default judgment of liability against General Abubakar."
*. "Mrs. Hafsat Abiola-Costello is suing in her individual capacity not on behalf of members of the entire Abiola family as alleged by the press report, and not on behalf of the estate of any of her parents."
*."This is a civil case. There is no prospect of General Abubakar facing a constraint on his liberty as a result of its outcome."
*. "In cases of this nature, both parties may seek to resolve, through mediation or other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, their dispute, and may terminate the case early rather than spend lots of money in attorneys' fees and court costs. Bearing this in mind, both parties to this case have severally considered whether it would be in their respective interests to settle this case and save legal expenses or to fight on and lose millions of dollars in legal fees as a result. This is the basis upon which both sides to this case have considered settlement out of court." As the case now stands lawyers from both sides of the human rights violation case against former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar have now agreed to settle the case out of court even though actual trial in the case has been set for next week in Chicago.
The plaintiffs in the case instituted 7 years ago are foremost Nationalist Anthony Enahoro, Dr. Arthur Nwankwo and Hafsat Abiola, and they were demanding $50m in civil damages for human rights violation including illegal arrest and detention, torture among others.
However settlement talks now are said to be considering total payment of either $650,000 or a little over a million to both the plaintiffs and the lawyers; a payment the federal government is believed to have committed to underwrite so as to bring the case to an amicable end for both sides.
Both lawyers confirmed that a joint stipulation on an out of court settlement would be filed in the US district court in Chicago on or before the case resumes on December 10. That stipulation would detail the terms of the settlement.
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Posted by Robot| 04.12.2007 08:56