{"id":193512,"date":"2026-02-04T16:06:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:13:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:13:28","slug":"human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction","title":{"rendered":"Human rights lawyer urges court to decline jurisdiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A human rights lawyer, Barrister Victor Giwa, has asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to decline jurisdiction in the alleged forgery case brought against him and one other, Bukola Ibitade, by the Nigeria Police.<\/p>\n<p>In the motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court, Giwa said the court has no power to try him.<\/p>\n<p>During the proceedings on Wednesday, counsel to Giwa, Mr Farooq Akanbi, from the chamber of Dr. Ahmed Raji, SAN, told the court about a pending application challenging the jurisdiction of the court.<\/p>\n<p>Akanbi said the application borders on jurisdiction which touches on the soul of the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 1st defendant has an application seeking to relist the motion on notice earlier struck out by the court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe applications have been served on all the parties. The prosecution served us a counter-affidavit this morning. This motion should be taken before other pending applications,\u201d Akanbi said.<\/p>\n<p>However, police prosecutor, Theophilous Silas, said he filed a counter-affidavit and served the defendant adding that no copy of the application has been served on the court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe filed a counter affidavit and served but the court\u2019s copy is not yet in the court\u2019s file. The motion is not ripe for hearing and the court\u2019s copy, although, served on the court, the registrar of the court said it will be put in the file after today\u2019s proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurthermore, the 1st defendant hasn\u2019t supplied a single basis, authority or facts that will suggest that the motion will take precedent over the prosecution\u2019s motion. We urge the court to hold that the prosecution should move his motion,\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n<p>Ogbu Aboje, counsel to Ibitade, confirmed receipt of the motion from the 1st defendant, adding that he was also served with the counter-affidavit on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Aboje told the court that the motion should be taken first because it challenges the jurisdiction of the court.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that issues have been joined in the application and urged the court to consider the application first so that the records of the proceedings of the court will be straight.<\/p>\n<p>In a short ruling, Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie adjourned the case till February 12, 2026, for all the pending applications to be taken.<\/p>\n<p>The police is prosecuting Giwa and his co-accused, Bukola Ibitade, for allegedly forging the letterhead paper of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Awa Kalu.<\/p>\n<p>But Awa Kalu, in a letter to the Inspector General of Police, Mr Kayode. Egebtokun, denied the forgery of his letterhead paper, adding that he never made such a complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the letter in which Awa Kalu distanced himself from the allegation of forgery and impersonation against Giwa and his co-accused, Bukola Ibitade, the police went ahead to press charges.<\/p>\n<p>Kalu, in the letter dated May 30, 2025, and addressed to the Inspector General of Police, clarified that he neither filed a complaint nor reported Giwa for allegedly forging his firm\u2019s letterhead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. A human rights lawyer, Barrister Victor Giwa, has asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to decline jurisdiction in the alleged forgery case brought against him and one other, Bukola Ibitade, by the Nigeria Police. In the motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court, Giwa said the court has no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":193511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-193512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Human rights lawyer urges court to decline jurisdiction - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A human rights lawyer, Barrister Victor Giwa, has asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to decline jurisdi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Human rights lawyer urges court to decline jurisdiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A human rights lawyer, Barrister Victor Giwa, has asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to decline jurisdi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-04T15:06:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-04T16:13:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770221544.312551.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1138\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"717\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Human rights lawyer urges court to decline jurisdiction\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-04T15:06:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-04T16:13:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction\"},\"wordCount\":507,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770221544.312551.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/human-rights-lawyer-urges-court-to-decline-jurisdiction\",\"name\":\"Human rights lawyer urges court to decline jurisdiction - 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