26.
The Plaintiff further states that his counsel filed a motion for the
trail judge to recuse himself due to the above reason and the
prosecution, knowing it was a fact did not file any affidavit in
opposition to dispute the fact, still the trial judge refused to recuse
himself which is a clear gross violation of the plaintiff human
rights. The plaintiff will rely on the said motion and ruling at the
trial of this case”.
In effect, the gravamen of the Plaintiff’s allegation is that while he was in office,
there was a pending case before him on corruption to which the trial Judge was
involved and that the Chief Justice who replaced him assigned his own trial to the
said judge. Another perplexing concern is that the Plaintiff’s case had been assigned
to one Legenju Vitalis, a state Counsel who is a nephew to the trial Judge and at
that time, was living in the same house with the trial judge.
In response to this assertion, the Defendant denied the existence of any pending
case and maintained that the prosecution was led by a special litigation counsel,
one Mr. Agiah and assisted by a state counsel Legenju Vitalis, who for all intents
and purposes was a state counsel at the Attorney General’s Chamber.
One fundamental point which needs to be clarified by the Court is whether or not
the trial judge was indeed a subject of corruption proceedings before the Plaintiff
when the former was assigned as the trial judge over the Plaintiff’s trial. The
Plaintiff who bears the burden of proof, in his pleading averred as reproduced
above. When same was denied by the Defendant, the Plaintiff in his oral evidence
before the Court on the 22nd November, 2018, at page seven (7) of the verbatim,
stated as follows:
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