Posted by Friday, the Federal Government’s plea to reverse the Court of plea’s ruling clearing former Niger Delta Affairs Minister Godsday Orubebe of false assets declaration was denied by the Supreme Court.
You may remember that in 2015, Orubebe was charged by the federal government with failing to disclose an Abuja property that the former minister had asserted he had sold on his asset declaration papers filed to the Code of Conduct Bureau.
But he entered a not guilty plea to the accusation that was brought against him.
Orubebe stated that he did not include the parcel of land in his asset declaration in 2011 since he had already sold it to his landlord prior to making his final asset declaration as he was leaving office.
However, the federal government was compelled to confiscate the former minister’s undeclared property by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Nonetheless, Orubebe appealed the tribunal’s decision to the Court of Appeal, which overturned the former.
The verdict of the appellate court was not satisfactory to the federal government, therefore it appealed to the supreme court.
The Supreme Court’s Justice Emmanuel Agim ruled that the appeal lacked competence.
A competent appeal, he declared. A mixed fact of law could not be filed because prior judicial permission was not obtained. It has been removed.