$15m Ibori bribe: Court warns Clark, refuses EFCC’s invitation request

IJAW leader, Chief Edwin Clark, was reprimanded by a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday for making statements considered prejudicial in the case of the alleged $15 million James Ibori's bribe, though it refused a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to compel his appearance before the court over the said statements.

In a short ruling by the court over the application to summon Clark, Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that Chief Clark was not a party in the suit pending before his court and that dwelling on comments made by non parties in a suit amounts to searching for the cure for ringworm in a case of leprosy.

The court also called on Nigerians, especially lawyers like Chief Clark who ought to know, to desist from making comments on matters pending before the court as that would prejudge the outcome of the case.

Justice Kolawole also advised the EFCC, if it was so vexed by the comments credited to the elder statesman, to file a formal application to enable Chief Clark respond accordingly in line with his constitutionally guaranteed right to fair hearing.

Counsel for EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had contended that remarks credited to Chief Clark in some newspapers which arose from a media briefing convened by the elder statesman were prejudicial. 

He urged the court to summon Chief Clark to appear before it to answer questions as to why he made such prejudicial comments that touch on issues in a pending case.

Chief  Clark had, during a press briefing on the raging issue of an application for forfeiture of the alleged Ibori bribe which the anti-graft agency had brought before the court, thrown his weight behind claims by Delta State government that the money belonged to the state and should be returned to it. He called for the sack of Ibrahim Lamorde over his roles in the plan to have the sum forfeited to the Federal Government.