Justice S. Seidu of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday, imposed a fine of N50,000 on former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, for withdrawing a suit instituted against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Jonathan had in February 2017 instituted a suit against the EFCC in which she was seeking an order of the court for the “enforcement of her fundamental rights to own property, fair hearing, human dignity, private and family life and freedom from discrimination”.
The plaintiff through her counsel, I. A. Adedipe, SAN, had prayed the court to restrain the EFCC from infringing on her right.
Counsel to the EFCC, Kayode Oni, faulted Jonathan on her prayers before the court, arguing that her suit was “an abuse of court process”.
At the resumed hearing of the matter Monday, Sammie Somiari who represented Patience, addressed the court on a notice of discontinuance of the suit, saying that he had “an instruction” of his client to discontinue the matter.
He said that an application had been filed before the court to that effect.
In response, Oni submitted that Patience had a right of discontinue the case, but pressed for a charge of N500,000 as costs of filing processes in response to the suit.
Justice Seidu struck out the suit and awarded cost against the plaintiff.