Ex-Envoy faults Geoffrey Onyeama’s appointment as minister

A former Nigerian ambassador, Lilian Onoh, on Tuesday, accused Geoffrey Onyeama of missing the psychological well being to be a minister when he served because the Minister of Overseas Affairs within the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime.

Mr Onyeama who served as Minister of Overseas Affairs below Mr Buhari from 2015 to 2023, is locked in a libel swimsuit he filed in opposition to Ms Onoh on the Federal Capital Territory Excessive Courtroom at Zuba in Abuja.

Testifying through zoom from her base in the US of America on Tuesday, Ms Onoh informed the choose, Keziah Ogbonnaya, that she had warned Mr Buhari to not rent Mr Onyeama in one among her memos.

As her cause, she stated she cited Mr Onyeama’s “hereditory madness” and the corrosive results of the psychotropic medicine which had prompted him to at all times declare he was “not conscious” and which had negatively impacted Nigeria’s worldwide relations.

Ms Onoh was led in her evidence-in-chief by Monday Ejeh, her lawyer, whereas she opened her defence within the libel case on Tuesday.

She stated Nigeria’s secret police, the State Safety Service (SSS) will need to have “flagged” Mr Onyeama’s suitability for the highest job and his lengthy acquainted historical past on the Enugu Psychiatric Hospital, “however was probably over-ridden by late Mallam Abba Kyari.”

Mr Kyari who was former President Buhari’s chief of employees handed away in 2020 after he contracted the lethal coronavirus.

The deceased presidential aide was reputed to have exerted monumental affect on Mr Buhari, influencing important authorities insurance policies and actions.

Alleged corruption at overseas affairs ministry

Delving into the principal material of the swimsuit – corruption – Ms Onoh who was at completely different instances Nigeria’s envoy to Namibia and Jamaica, stated she penned a number of letters to Mr Buhari in regards to the grand corruption that was going down on Mr Onyeama’s watch as overseas affairs minister.

She pointed to a minimum of 20 letters listed in her proof detailing the alleged rot within the system that she alleged Mr Onyeama was complicit in.

At Tuesday’s listening to, Ms Onoh lampooned the previous minister for not being conscious that the embezzlement of $2.8 million by Nigerian diplomats in Jamaica within the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake, was not a bilateral downside with Jamaica however involved Crimson Cross.

Opposite to Mr Onyeama’s testimony on the final listening to, the ex-envoy clarified Mr Onyeama was not the one that commenced investigation into the Crimson Cross fraud.

Somewhat, she stated Mr Onyeama truncated probes into alleged stealing by Nigerian diplomats of donations by the Crimson Cross to survivors of the Jamaican earthquake.

Somewhat, she stated Mr Onyeama truncated probes into the stealing by Nigerian diplomats of donations by the Crimson Cross to survivors of the Haiti earthquake.

Ms Onoh had raised the alarm that the sum of $2.8 million was being misappropriated out of the $5 million donations by the Crimson Cross in Nigeria to victims of the lethal 2010 Haiti earthquake was embezzled by Nigerian diplomats in Jamaica.

The Nigerian mission in Jamaica was saddled with the duty of making use of the $5 million donations to the humanitarian catastrophe occasioned by the earthquake within the Caribbean nation.

However when Ms Onoh was posted to Jamaica in Might 2015 as Nigeria’s envoy, an investigation was launched into the alleged malfeasance.

Ms Onoh stated a former everlasting secretary on the Overseas Affairs Ministry, Bulus Lolo, referred the fraud in Jamaica to the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC), however when Mr Onyeama took workplace as minister in November 2015, he allegedly quashed investigation into the matter.

Decide’s impartiality questioned

Earlier than adopting her assertion of defence, Ms Onoh, for the umpteenth time, requested the choose, Keziah Ogbonnaya, to recuse herself from the swimsuit on account of alleged bias in her dealing with of the matter.

She referenced the 1983 precedent set by Anthony Aniogolu, a former Justice of the Supreme Courtroom who recused himself from the election petition case between her late father, Christian Onoh, and Jim Nwobodo .

She had filed petitions earlier than the Nationwide Judicial Council and the Chief Decide of the FCT Excessive Courtroom, Yusuf Baba-Husseini, urging the latter to reassign the swimsuit to a different choose.

The defendant anchored her request on the connection between Ms Ogbonnaya and Mr Onyeama, each of whom, she stated, hailed from Enugu State.

At an attractive session on Tuesday, the defendant alleged the choose had exhibited brazen bias in opposition to her in favour of Mr Onyeama by refusing to listen to and decide a pending request difficult the competence of the swimsuit.

Ms Onoh stated Mr Onyeama lacked the fitting to sue her in his non-public capability, having cited solely points regarding his efficiency in his official capability as overseas affairs minister in his swimsuit.

She denied defaming Mr Onyeama as her letters bordering on the previous minister’s alleged corrupt acts have been addressed to then President Buhari, to whom each she and Onyeama needed to report. She stated the letters have been acts of certified privilege and responsibility.

Additionally, Ms Onoh argued that Mr Onyeama’s competition a few non-public WhatsApp message from her to him being defamatory has no authorized foundation.

Indignant response

On the tense listening to on Tuesday, Mr Onyeama’s lawyer, Agada Elachi, stated Ms Onoh was being “unruly” in her testimony, which prompted her to flare up and accuse him of “dereliction of responsibility to his psychiatric affected person.”

Neither the interjection from Mr Elachi nor Ms Onoh’s lawyer, Monday Ejeh, might douse the tense ambiance, as she insisted on placing her defence ahead within the case.

She additional accused Mr Elachi of colluding together with his shopper to perpetrate fraud by serving court docket paperwork on her via Mr Onyeama on the Ministry of Overseas Affairs in Abuja.

When Mr Onyeama’s attorneys requested the choose to expedite the adoption of Ms Onoh’s filed responses as a way to pace up proceedings, she strenuously objected.

She stated she had a proper to defend herself and for the reason that choose had refused to listen to the request for the dismissal of the case, necessitating her to defend an incompetent swimsuit, she was entitled to take her time to defend herself correctly and referenced the choose giving Onyeama 4 days for his testimony.

However, the choose overruled Ms Onoh, saying the defendant’s ‘Assertion of Defence’, her counterclaim and her reply to Mr Onyeama’s response to her counterclaim have been deemed adopted, even with out her consent.

Subsequently, the choose adjourned the swimsuit till Thursday for cross-examination.