Barr. B. O. Ezeagu & Ors V. MR G. N. Nwonu (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

TOM SHAIBU YAKUBU, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

The Governor of Ebonyi State had in 2005 set up a Panel of Inquiry which investigated the operations of the Ebonyi State Local Government Audit. The said Panel at the end of its assignment submitted its report to the said Government and in the report, the Panel recommended that a larger body of inquiry be set up to further look into the matter. The Government, in accepting the report, subsequently set up a 7 – man Technical Committee which was headed by the 1st appellant which in its recommendation to Government indicted the respondent.

Not unnaturally, the respondent was not pleased with the decision of the 1st appellant’s committee against him and so he approached the Ebonyi State High Court of Justice with an Ex parte application, seeking the enforcement of the breach of his fundamental rights. Upon the grant of the ex parte application, the respondent sought the following reliefs in the amended statement in support of the application:

?i. DECLARATION that the 1st Respondent’s Panel of Inquiry was not constituted in a manner to ensure its independence and

impartiality guaranteed under Section 36(1) of Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

ii. DECLARATION that the 1st Respondent’s trial or inquisition of the Applicant without appraising him of any charge or wrong doing and giving him opportunity to defend himself is a travesty of Applicant’s right to fair hearing.

iii. DECLARATION that the 1st Respondent’s reliance on an unpublished report of Elder M. O. Nweke’s Panel and adoption of same in its entirety in reaching its decision against the Applicant is in breach of Applicant’s right to fair hearing under Section 36 of the Constitution (supra).

iv. DECLARATION that the Applicant is not vicariously liable to any omission or commission of the staff of 3rd Respondent in remittance of taxes to Government of Ebonyi State (represented by the 2nd Respondent) as imputed in the 1st Respondent’s findings and recommendation and 2nd Respondent’s white paper thereon.

v. AN ORDER setting aside or expunging from the records all indictments/findings/judgments of 1st & 2nd Respondents passed on the Applicant, and contained at pages 4, 5, 87 & 88 of the Government White Paper on the

report of the Technical Committee on Taxes Not Rendered to Government by Local Government Councils in Ebonyi State dated March, 2007.

vi. AN ORDER setting aside the 2nd Respondent’s decision to demote the Applicant in rank and redeploy him and in its stead to reinstate the Applicant into the service of the 3rd Respondent as the Auditor-General of Local Government in Ebonyi State.

vii. AN ORDER setting aside the 4th Respondent’s confirmation of Appointment of 5th Respondent as Auditor-General of Local Governments in Ebonyi State either in acting or substantive capacities.

viii. AN ORDER directing the 3rd Respondent to pay the Applicant all outstanding salaries, allowances and entitlements not enuring to him on account of the suspension and/or demotion in rank.

ix. PERPERTUAL INJUNCTION restraining the 2nd & 3rd Respondents from dismissing, terminating or demoting the Applicant or meting out any disciplinary measure on the Applicant on the basis of 1st Respondent’s inquisition or 2nd Respondent’s white paper thereon.