Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has rebuked Johnmary Jideobi, the plaintiff, and his lawyer, Ndubuisi Ukpai, over a lack of diligence in pursuing the suit filed, seeking to stop former President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2027 presidential election.
Justice Lifu, who described the plaintiff’s and his lawyer’s attitudes, which had continued to stall proceedings in the case, as “unacceptable”, awarded a N1 million fine against the plaintiff in favour of the ex-president.
The judge, who observed that Jideobi filed the suit on October 6, 2025, expressed surprise that he had yet to serve INEC and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the 2nd and 3rd defendants, six months later.
Besides, he observed that counsel for the ex-president, Chris Uche (SAN), told the court on May 8, when the case came up, that they got the information about the suit in the media and decided to file and serve their processes.
The judge equally observed that on May 11, neither Jideobi, who is also a lawyer, nor Ukpai was in court despite fixing the hearing time at 2 pm at the instance of the plaintiff’s lawyer on May 5.
