Inibehe Effiong: Claimant, protection counsels bicker over Akwa Ibom lawyer’s conviction

Effiong was sentenced to 1 month in jail for contempt through the cross-examination of the final witness, Richard Peters, in a libel swimsuit instituted by Governor Udom Emmanuel and Senator Effiong Bob in opposition to Leo Ekpenyong.

Giving his views of what transpired on the court docket at a media interplay over the weekend, the claimant’s counsel, Barr. Samuel Ikpo Esq, lamented that there was loads of untruth and half-truth because the incident occurred.

He claimed that the chief decide took the motion to commit the lawyer to jail to curtail his excesses which he stated the CJ had contained for a very long time prior to now.

He stated through the cross-examination of the final witness, the Chief Decide found a Premium Instances reporter who was recording the proceedings of the court docket and ordered him out and his cellphone seized, including that, that didn’t settle with the protection counsel who insisted that it was an open court docket and any particular person can witness the proceedings.

He additional claimed that whereas the court docket was making an attempt to reply to the defence lawyer’s software, he saved shouting, elevating his voice within the Court docket, and pointing his fingers on the Decide that he noticed policemen within the court docket and the Chief Decide ought to organize them out in any other case the proceedings won’t proceed.

He stated it was at that juncture that the court docket couldn’t include the attitudes of the defence lawyer in difficult the court docket choices verbally and disrupting the proceedings and requested him to step out of the bar and disrobe.

He stated afterward, the Decide sentenced him to jail for a month till he purges himself of the alleged contemptuous conduct.

Nevertheless, the top of Inibehe Effiong Chambers, Uyo department, Barr Augustine Asuquo described as blatant lies the declare of the claimant’s lawyer, stressing that his boss’s committal to jail was ‘unwarranted and unthinkable.’

In a press assertion entitled, “Incarceration of Barr Inibehe Effiong by CJ, Akwa Ibom state, Hon justice Ekaette Fabian Obot; the reality it’s essential to know” Effiong stated whereas he was cross-examining the witness, the CJ interjected and determined to know a person in a purple shirt who later recognized himself as a reporter from Premium Instances and was later despatched out by the CJ after his cellphone was confiscated.

He stated that Effiong advised the court docket that defendant’s trial is in open court docket, due to this fact the general public is allowed to look at the continuing and the Decide insisted that no one is allowed to report the proceedings with out being permitted by the court docket.

He stated the protection counsel made one other commentary of the presence of two armed cops with AK47s behind him within the courtroom and requested the CJ to direct them to go away as their presence had made the ambiance tense.

He added, “My Lord in response stated that the armed officers are defending him. Whereas Inibehe was nonetheless addressing the court docket, the court docket was writing and none of us knew that my Lord was writing on my colleague’s committal to jail. Quickly after the writing, my Lord raised his head and yelled at Inibehe to step out of the court docket and derobe. Surprisingly, Inibehe requested my Lord why and my Lord stated I’m sending you to jail. He stated in amost regrettable method.”