Looters’ list not violation of persons’ rights — Court

An Abuja High Court, sitting at Apo, yesterday, refused to declare that the alleged looters’ list the Federal Government released earlier in the year, amounted to breach of right of presumption of innocence of the named persons.

However, the court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, held that any person aggrieved by the possible injury the list caused him, was at liberty to seek a remedy through a libel or slander suit.

Justice Adeniyi dismissed as lacking in merit, a suit lodged before the court by Chairman emeritus of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, which prayed it to declare that the inclusion of his name in the alleged looters’ list, amounted to gross violation of his right to presumption of innocence as enshrined in section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The court held that the alleged looters’ list that was disclosed on behalf of the Federal Government by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, sometimes in March, does not carry any force of law.

It maintained that the pronouncement of the Minister, who is neither a judge nor the prosecutor in the criminal charge federal government initiated against Dokpesi, lacked legal impetus and, therefore, not capable of affecting the plaintiff’s right to be presumed innocent of allegations against him, pending the conclusion of his trial.

Dokpesi had insisted that the list was highly prejudicial to his ongoing trial before theFederal High Court in Abuja.