The handling of the criminal case has also come under scrutiny following the abrupt transfer of the case file from the original presiding judge, Justice Aminu M. Abdullahi.
Nigeria’s Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has been accused of deploying the enormous prosecutorial powers of his office against a serving member of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Amobi Godwin Ogah, in a criminal case linked to a bitter political dispute involving Fagbemi’s former private client.
Documents detailing the circumstances surrounding the case raise serious questions about conflict of interest, prosecutorial abuse, judicial impartiality and an alleged attempt to use criminal proceedings and crushing bail conditions to politically incapacitate Ogah ahead of another election cycle.
At the centre of the controversy is the fact that Fagbemi, before becoming Nigeria’s Attorney-General, served as personal lead counsel to Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha during the election petition proceedings arising from the 2023 National Assembly elections.
After Fagbemi became Attorney-General, the Federal Government’s prosecutorial machinery was reportedly deployed in a criminal defamation case against Ogah over statements contained in an affidavit connected with the same election dispute in which the Attorney-General had previously represented Onyejeocha.
