In the certified true copy of the judgment, Justice Ebong ruled as follows:

“It is my conclusion based on the foregoing that this charge (No. FCT/HC/CR/985/2024, Federal Republic of Nigeria v Leo Stan Ekeh and 12 ORS) constitutes a gross abuse of court process and is liable to dismissal. I accordingly hereby dismiss it.”

The revered Justice Ebong further said:

“One intriguing aspect of this matter is that none of the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of the nominal complainant’s (Mr. Joseph) numerous petitions has found merit in any of his allegations against the defendants. When called upon before Senchi J. (Justice Danlami Z. Senchi) to prove his allegations to the court, he failed to turn up. One then wonders on what premise he wants to maintain this campaign of persecution against the defendants.”

Even without the judge saying it, this case is an odious embarrassment to the judiciary in all ramifications.

As the judge courageously noted, this is nothing but a campaign of persecution embarked upon since 2013 by Joseph.

The use of the phrases “abuse of court process” and “campaign of persecution” by the judge speaks volumes of the intent of Joseph and his supporters, especially Falana. What the judge did not say, though inferred, is that this is a case of blackmail.

If it is not, why did Falana include persons not linked to the case? Why did he focus on Zinox and Leo Stan Ekeh even when they have no bearing on the transaction?

It is high time that the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) began to discipline lawyers who deploy subterfuge, deceit and blackmail to obfuscate facts, a tendency that has the coloration of abuse of court process and judicial persecution.

What led to the case!

In the suit No. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 filed in November 2024, Falana, on behalf of his client, Benjamin Joseph, the CEO of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, an Ibadan-based computer firm, filed charges against Ekeh, nine other individuals, and three companies before the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly diverting N162,247,513.80 being payment for laptop supply contract at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Headquarters which Technology Distribution Limited (now TD Africa), the biggest tech equipment distributor in sub-Saharan Africa supplied on behalf of Citadel in 2012.

For clarity, Citadel could not finance the contract. It approached Technology Distributions, which extended a credit facility to Citadel on agreed profit-sharing terms.

However, when payment was made by FIRS, Joseph wanted to divert the money to himself but failed.

He hopped from the courts to investigating institutions, including the police, but on all occasions, he was unable to prove his case.

Implications of the Judgment

This judgment, therefore, is a testament to the integrity of the judiciary under Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Chief Justice of the Federation, and the high level of judicial thoroughness and mindset of audacity for which Justice Ebong is famed.

It bears re-stating that this was the third time this case was dismissed by different judges at different times.

But despite two previous dismissals of the case, Falana, in a manner both strange to law and curious to logic, returned to court seeking adjudication on the same matter two eminent judges had dismissed.

Yet despite Joseph’s failures at the courts, Falana was bent on pursuing a case already declared to be standing on nothing but deceit.

At this point, it was looking like forum-shopping and judicial persecution, not prosecution, by Falana and his client, Benjamin Joseph, in an apparent scheme to maliciously damage the reputation of the defendants, some of whom had no connection whatsoever with the transaction.

Justice Ebong showed exemplary judicial courage, dignity and forthrightness in the matter, as reflected in his judgment.

A cursory look at the judgment showed that Justice Ebong had considered the outcome of previous cases and petitions filed by Mr. Joseph on this same matter both at the courts and even with the police. Expectedly, none of his filings and petitions was in his favour, an indexation of the Latin phrase “quod non est verum, non est verum”, meaning “what is not true is not true.”

A case roundly dismissed by two High Courts, a case in which the police prosecuted Joseph for false information for which the court imposed N20 million damages on him; a matter in which the FIRS vide a letter to Joseph’s first counsel, Afe Babalola & Co, dated February 11, 2014 (FIRS/PD/GDS/2559) and signed by one Idrissa Kogo, Head Legal Department, punctured the lies of Joseph that he was not aware of any such contract under disputation, cannot suddenly be established as true. Whatever is built on deceit will crash like a pack of cards.

Question: Is Falana, a senior lawyer, a public legal figure in Nigeria whom many junior lawyers look up to as role model, not aware of these dismissals of the same case he has been trying to persuade the courts to rule in favour of his client?

Is Falana not aware as Justice Ebong noted that “none of the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of Mr. Joseph’s numerous petitions has found merit in any of his allegations against the defendants,” and that even “when called upon before Senchi J. (Justice Danlami Z. Senchi) to prove his said allegations to the court, he failed to turn up in court.”

As Justice Ebong put it, “One then wonders on what premise he (Joseph) wants to maintain this campaign of persecution against the defendants.”

Did Falana not do due diligence on his client? Is he not aware of the various failings of Joseph to prove his case in other courts?

Falana may need to approach Mr. Afe Babalola SAN, a very senior legal luminary, to be briefed on why his chamber withdrew from the case. Why, then, would he gleefully lead his client on a voyage described by the judge as an “abuse of court process?”

As a senior lawyer, Falana should know that it is dangerous for a lawyer, any lawyer, not to do due diligence on a client.

Lawyers who fail to do so suffer disgrace before the judge and in the eyes of other stakeholders involved in the matter. Junior lawyers should learn from this case.

On no account should any lawyer return to a court of coordinate jurisdiction on the same matter that had been dismissed, in this case, twice. That is abuse of court process as eloquently captured by the Supreme Court in Dike GEO Motors Ltd & Anor v. Allied Signal Inc. & Anor (2024).

According to the apex court, “the term ‘abuse of court process’ is generally applied to proceedings that are wanting in bona fides, frivolous, oppressive and vexatious. It may also mean the improper use of court process which involves malice, deliberateness, and desire to misuse or pervert the process of the court or system of administration of justice to the annoyance or embarrassment and irritation of an opponent.”

It is hard to imagine that a lawyer would keep juggling the same case from court to court in the hope that what has been established by other courts as baseless and frivolous and by investigative authorities as blatant falsehood would be adjudged as the truth.

Or was it a case of ‘malice, deliberateness and desire to misuse or pervert the process of the court or system of administration of justice to the annoyance or embarrassment and irritation of the defendants’?

Why is Falana not bothered about the reputational damage he has caused the defendants; the emotional pain and character assassination they have suffered on account of his blind resort to forum-shopping.

This judgment creates another legal vista that may likely see the defendants suing Falana and Joseph for defamation of character and reputational damage especially given that some of the defendants are global individuals and corporates with international partners.

*Odumosu, a public policy analyst, writes from Lagos

The post Femi Falana, Citadel and Zinox: An Embarrassing Judicial Persecution appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

In a statement on Sunday, Zinox referenced recent news items in the media relating to certain charges filed by  Falana, purporting to act on a fiat donated to him by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, whom Zinox said may not have been properly briefed.

“We are sure that if the circumstances of this case were made available to the respected Honorable Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, he would not have granted the purported fiat to Femi Falana,” Zinox said in the statement.

In the news reports, Falana was said to have filed a suit before Honorable Justice A. O. Ebong of the FCT High Court in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 in November 2024, a suit Zinox said was based on the same claims which various courts had in the past dismissed as falsehood and baseless.

“Our initial reaction was to ignore these publications as the usual campaigns of calumny that have been orchestrated against Zinox since 2014 by one Mr. Benjamin Joseph, the Managing Director of Citadel Oracle Concept Ltd, the client of Mr. Femi Falana SAN. However, we are persuaded to respond by the consideration that once falsehood is sustained over time, it tends to acquire the garb of truth.”

Zinox said the case arose from a contract between Citadel and Technology Distributions Limited over the supply of computers to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), stressing that the matter has no bearing whatsoever with Zinox and its promoter, Mr Leo Stan Ekeh.

“Firstly, we are shocked that Femi Falana would include Zinox in his purported fiat/charges, a company that has nothing to do with the transaction or allegations. For the records, we want to state as follows:

“Zinox has never been invited by any investigative agency, including the police and the EFCC, on these allegations. There is no report either by the police or the EFCC or any investigative agency where the name of Zinox was mentioned as a suspect. There is no judgment or ruling of any court where Zinox was mentioned as having anything to do, whatsoever, with the transaction or the allegations, the basis of the fiat/charges. Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, the Chairman of Zinox, has never made any statement to the police in the course of any investigations and has never been mentioned in any court proceedings or judgment as part of any investigations relating to these allegations. Indeed, he has never met with Benjamin Joseph before,” the statement said.

Zinox cited instances in which Mr. Joseph lost the case and its adjunct suit. In a petition/case Mr. Joseph reported since 2013 and for which the Inspector General of Police charged him for false information in charge no.CR/216/16, he was unable to prove his allegations for more than 8years.

In another case filed by the EFCC at his instance against his partner, Princess Kama, in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, Honorable Justice Danlami Z. Senchi of the FCT High Court (as he then was), dismissed as false all the allegations made by Benjamin Joseph, and imposed the sum of N20 million as damages against him for false petitioning in relation to these same allegations.

Zinox alleged that the current charges said to have been filed by Falana on the basis of a fiat from the Attorney General is the third in a row as he had earlier filed charge no.CR/469/2022, which was struck out by Honorable Justice C. O. Oba of the FCT High Court, by an order dated 8th November 2022.

In what appears to be forum shopping and abuse of court process, “he filed the same charges before Honorable Justice A. S. Adepoju of the FCT High Court, which charges were, once more, struck out by the Honorable Court on 19th March 2024, with Honorable Justice Adepoju holding that:

“This matter was brought in dead, extinct and should be confined into the dustbin of history…I hold that the instant suit is an abuse of the process of court and it is hereby struck out accordingly,” the statement said.

Zinox said it was shocked that a “learned Senior Advocate in the person of Femi Falana, would proceed to file the same charges before Honorable Justice A. O. Ebong of the FCT High Court in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 in November 2024.”

The statement said: “It is, therefore, very clear that the deliberate intention for instituting this new charge by Femi Falana SAN, to include the name of Zinox and its Chairman and other persons who were never part of the investigations, is to embarrass them, harm their reputation, and thereby damage their businesses. In the circumstance, we hereby demand a public apology from Mr. Femi Falana SAN, if he is unable to produce the evidence demanded above.

“We, therefore, assure all our business partners, stakeholders, and friends, that we are not ruffled by these spurious allegations. While our lawyers are set to defend the present charges purportedly filed by Femi Falana SAN, we shall not fail to explore all legal remedies against persons associated with orchestrating these false allegations and publications against us,” Zinox said.

The post Zinox Demands Apology from Femi Falana appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Ekeh said he was shocked that Femi Falana (SAN), counsel to Benjamin Joseph of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd, an Enugu indigene based in Ibadan, has continued in the old school of media trial in the same case he withdrew last year after he “misled” the former Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami to issue him a Fiat.

He said:

“A few friends mentioned it to me a few days back. I was really shocked that Femi Falana (SAN) still continues in this old school of media trial in the same case he shamefully withdrew last year after he misled the former Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Malami SAN, to issue him a fiat. A few days after Mr. Malami issued the Fiat, he discovered that Mr. Falana misled him by hiding material facts without disclosing to him that there was already a judgment by Hon. Justice Danlami  Senchi of the FCT High Court in Charge  No. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018 against his client on the same case with N20m damage imposed on his client, Mr. Benjamin Joseph of Citadel Oracle Concepts Ltd, for false petitioning and to serve as a deterrence against others who waste taxpayers’ money incurred in investigating spurious petitions.

“Falana also did not inform the Attorney General that he is the lawyer acting for Benjamin Joseph who filed a motion to appeal the N20m damages. Mr. Malami was also upset that Femi Falana didn’t actively disclose the fact that Benjamin Joseph was still facing a criminal case instituted against him by the Inspector General of Police in another court in Charge No.CR/216/16 before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court Abuja, for false information on the same facts, which his client Benjamin Joseph, was unable to defend for over 8 years.  Instead, Mr Joseph was avoiding the court for flimsy reasons. The same Attorney General – Mr. Malami, had instructed that the criminal case against Benjamin Joseph should not be withdrawn but must be prosecuted to a logical conclusion, as contained in 3 separate letters to the Inspector General of Police after Benjamin Joseph had begged Mr. Malami to stop his trial.”

Ekeh expressed his respect for Falana but stressed that “this case should instruct him to unlearn a few things in his practice. Times have moved from analogue to digital. There are new kids on the block. It is difficult for me to agree that Falana, as an experienced lawyer, parent, husband to another distinguished SAN, could not differentiate between corporate and individual personalities.

He listed Zinox, myself, and even retired non-Executive Directors of Technology Distributions Ltd as defendants, persons who have never been included in any investigation and report since this case started in 2013 just to make his media trial appear important.”

He wondered:

“When serious matters of law became a show business. Every mature Nigerian knows the relationship between Falana and Sahara Reporters. It’s instructive to note that as we speak, the new suit filed by Falana has not been served on me or any of the defendants, to the best of my knowledge. However, Falana had rushed to the media, using Sahara Reporters to splash it as ‘Breaking News’ just to achieve the set objective of his client, Benjamin Joseph.”

The Zinox boss said:

“It is clear that they do not have confidence in their case but simply want media publicity to harass and embarrass me, my wife, directors, and staff of my companies. It is regrettable that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria would be playing to the gallery instead of venting his case in court. You can see that Falana is doing everything to protect his client at all costs, a man who lied but later confessed in his Witness Statement on Oath in a civil case he filed at the Lagos State High Court, that he knew about the contract and gave Princess Kama (his partner) all personal and corporate documents needed for the FIRS contract.

“This shows that he has been lying all the while that he was not aware of the contract.  It is also to be noted that the FIRS, in a letter on February 11, 2014, to Chief Afe Babalola Chambers, stated that Benjamin Joseph knew about the contract and that he gave them a letter accepting the contract and appointing Princess Kama, his staff, as the authorised representative of Citadel on the contract and also that Citadel instructed the FIRS to pay the proceeds of the contract into the Access Bank account opened for that purpose. I should suppose that it’s part of the reason the respected Afe Babalola SAN technically withdrew from acting for Benjamin Joseph in 2014. But Femi Falana would rather continue in his intransigence to propagate the spurious claims of his client. As a counsel, it behoves him to properly advise his client not to tow a wrong path, especially when there’s a subsisting judgment that imposed N20 million damages against him for false petitioning.

“I am in tech business and will never dine with any alleged blackmailer as Benjamin Joseph appears to be acting out. I am sure Mr. Falana and the learned AGF of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, both experienced lawyers, have not created time to read through this case file. If they did, then it is regrettable that the respected AGF would still grant another Fiat to Falana even after a similar Fiat was withdrawn from Falana by the former AGF over misrepresentation of facts. I doubt that the AGF, after withdrawing the criminal case against Benjamin Joseph in June 2024 to save him from possible imprisonment, would now issue a Fiat on behalf of the same Benjamin Joseph to file charges against the people he lied against. We cannot leave this country for people who dance to the gallery.

“We must fix it. Thank you, but please note that I have nothing against Falana and Co., but  if truly he secured a Fiat this year, which I doubt, we shall meet in court,” he said.

The post Leo Stan Ekeh Dismisses Alleged New ‘Lawsuit by Falana’ as ‘Empty Forum Shopping’ appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

However, I was recently moved to take an interest in the case after a lawyer friend of mine went to great lengths to verify from the facts on ground from the respective authorities. Now, I am moved to comment following what I consider an unacceptable media slander to denigrate the character of the Zinox owner.

The only sin Mr. Ekeh’s company committed is extending documented interest-free credit facility to your client when he couldn’t fund an IT supply business which the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) awarded his company and 12 other companies. After the FIRS paid all suppliers funded by Technology Distributions Ltd. (TD Africa), other companies paid TD the invoice sum of the laptops supplied on credit to them as agreed.

However, your client tried to divert TD’s fund.

It is important to state here that your client’s application for credit was initially rejected based on lack of credit history with TD. However, his partner, Princess Kama and her uncle, one Chief Onny Igbokwe, a long-time customer of TD’s, intervened on his behalf.

Therefore, when he tried to hold back remitting the funds for the laptops supplied on credit by TD, his partner, Princess Kama who, handled the transaction on behalf of his company (he issued a letter of authority to Princess Kama as his company’s legal representative and submitted it with a copy of his passport to the FIRS) refused as the credit was guaranteed by Chief Igbokwe.

After TD was paid, your client Benjamin Joseph started fighting his partner, Princess Kama, on profit share which lasted two years and was at a point handled by a distinguished lawyer – Chief Afe Babalola – who pleaded with Princess Kama to consider increasing the profit share due to Benjamin Joseph a little bit, but your client wanted all.

It was at this point that your client changed the story that he was not aware of the contract and that his company was used to defraud the FIRS, adding that nothing was supplied to the FIRS. This, I understood, was in order to try and blackmail the owners of TD to extort money from the company. He sponsored some fake press releases against the Zinox Chairman, his wife and Access Bank so that he could have access to Mr. Ekeh. When he visited Lagos from Ibadan to meet Mr. Ekeh on one occasion, the Zinox Chairman refused to see him because he was classified a blackmailer. 

Your client had initially reported the case to the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU) Milverton Road, Ikoyi. The SFU conducted investigations and indicted him on the basis that a forensic analysis report stated that he signed the board resolution which he said was forged. He thereafter lodged another petition to the Police Headquarters, Abuja, who after investigations and confirming that he was lying, charged him to court in 2016 in suit CR/216/2016 (IGP vs. Benjamin Joseph) for false information before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke. The Police (Prosecution) has since closed their case since 2018 and your client is supposed to open his defence.

Instead of defending himself, he is running around with your help, to have the Attorney General to discontinue the criminal case against him. My investigation at the Ministry of Justice revealed that your chambers once applied to the AG with a letter dated November 1, 2018, for a Fiat, which you invariably wanted to use to discontinue the criminal proceedings against Benjamin Joseph, so that he would not defend the criminal charges against him. But the AG refused that your 2018 application. Thereafter, your client went to procure some spurious “reports” said to have been made in 2015 and in 2020, which you, again, used to apply for another Fiat.

But my further investigations at the Force Headquarters Abuja shows that the Police have, by a comprehensive report dated December 1, 2020, discredited and disclaimed all those “reports” which your client is parading and with which you tried to get the Honourable AG to grant you a Fiat in May 2022.

However, when the AG further reviewed the file and saw through the discrepancies in your application for the Fiat, the AG reversed himself and issued a new letter to the Police dated 6th June 2022, directing the Police to prosecute your client, Benjamin Joseph, to a logical conclusion. For instance, your chambers failed to disclose to the AG that there is a subsisting judgment of the FCT High Court in Suit No. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, given by Honourable Justice Danlami Senchi on 24th February 2021, against your client to pay N20million as damages for false petitioning and to serve as a deterrent against persons who would give Police or the EFCC false information as your client did. This was following the petition your client made on same set of facts and allegations to the EFCC through the Vice President.

Yet, you are applying for Fiat to prosecute the same persons your client is asked by a subsisting judgment to pay N20million as damages!    That same judgment absolved these same persons of all the allegations made by your client.

I would also like to point out that the Federal Government, through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Inspector General of Police have instructed the court to prosecute your client, Mr. Benjamin Joseph to logical conclusion, with letters dated 6th June, 2022 and 26th September, 2022 respectively, for false information at the FCT High Court, before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke. Yet, the latest release being circulated by your client states that you are filing charges against Mr. Ekeh, Mrs. Ekeh, Chris Eze Ozims, Shade Oyebode and other persons named in the publications.  Meanwhile, your client was in court on the 27th of September 2022 and the letter of the AG dated 6th June 2022 and the letter of the IGP dated 26th September 2022, to continue the prosecution of your client were already in the court file. Your client was called upon to give evidence for his defence. He could not defend himself but rather sought an adjournment.

Yet, your client quickly rushed to the press on the 29th (2 days after) to blackmail innocent persons with reckless allegations contained in various online publications. All these acts are capable of making one believe that they are not directed to meet the ends of justice but just to embarrass and humiliate Mr. Ekeh, the Chairman of Zinox, his wife, and his staff.  

It is libellous to insinuate that a distinguished tech entrepreneur who has built the largest ICT group on the continent, as well as his wife and few others have been indicted by Police and EFCC. It is all false.

The release indicated that the Police SFU and the EFCC indicted Mr. Ekeh, Mrs. Ekeh, Mr. Ozims, Mrs. Oyebode, Mr. Adigwe. Could you please release these reports from the SFU and the EFCC to the public for us to read? I have made enquiries at EFCC and the Police Headquarters to confirm this claim and both confirmed there was no such invitation and indictment. The spurious

Police reports which your client is parading were not made by the SFU who investigated the case. Your client rather procured a certain “report” from a Police agency in Abuja, which did not investigate the case and which the Police Headquarters Abuja has disclaimed in their FINAL report dated 1st December 2020 on this matter. Yet, your client is parading these fake and discredited reports. I am sure you know that your client who reported cases has been unable to substantiate and defend the case he reported at the courts till date and is instead begging the Attorney General to withdraw the case. I have taken the pains to give you specific dates of letters and reports and particulars of all the cases, to demonstrates the truthfulness of my findings. Anybody can thus verify them. 

For your information, Technology Distributions (TD Africa) which is run by Mrs Chioma Ekeh, a first-rate Mathematician, FCA, MBA is the largest ICT products distribution company in the sub- Saharan Africa and has a revolving credit to ICT vendors of $75m in the last eight years. This was why your client could be extended an interest-free credit to execute the job for which he could not secure a bank loan.

Mr. Ekeh and his Board are persons of integrity and please feel free to confirm this from industry players. Yet, he sponsored a publication which states that 12 persons including Access Bank conspired to defraud him of N170m. Are they hungry as to collectively tarnish their integrity with a mere N170m contract?

Indeed, your client owes an apology to Mr. Ekeh, a serial digital entrepreneur and well-known promoter of trust economy and digital democracy, who I consider the main target in this charade. Let me share a few facts. 

In the last 35 years, he has built the largest ICT group in Africa with companies in four continents without borrowing a kobo or owing any bank for that matter (please check with Nigerian banks). He believes he is a child of trust economy and has succeeded with it.

His companies have executed the biggest ICT projects in Africa and some Arab countries and so not desperate to cheat any person. His companies also employ thousands of quality Nigerian staff. He may be extremely humble but not stupid.

Mr. Ekeh enjoys the privilege of being the only African with revenge insurance (please check global database if you are given access). He is humble to a fault and that is why he is tolerating your client. He once told his friend after investigating your client with paid foreign detectives that Mr. Joseph is broke and working as small blackmailer for competitors to some of his companies and that it was a waste of time looking in his direction.

Finally, Mr. Falana, I would like you to ask that if the claim made by your client in that publication are substantiated.

Please, publish the court, Police and EFCC report that indicted Mr. Ekeh, his wife, and all the other names mentioned including Access Bank.

If you have this evidence, I shall apologize to you publicly for seeing the publication by your client as a cheap blackmail. I believe that irrespective of how long it takes, justice will eventually have its way in this long-drawn case.

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