AMIWERO VS CUSTOMS:

Counsel to Mr. Lucky Amiwero, Barrister Osuala Nwagbara has challenged the Federal High Court over the case between his client and the Nigeria Customs Service, saying that the case ought to have been heard at either the Lagos State High Court or a Magistrate Court.

Counsel to Mr. Lucky Amiwero, Barrister Osuala Nwagbara has challenged the Federal High Court over the case between his client and the Nigeria Customs Service, saying that the case ought to have been heard at either the Lagos State High Court or a Magistrate Court.
Barrister Nwagbara disclosed this to Shipping Position Daily, even as he added that he has been able to file a motion to challenge the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to entertain the case, adding that any criminal charge against an individual must relate to section 251 of the 1999 constitution as amended and section 7 of Federal High Act as defined.
Nwagbara said matters that relate to any of the defined areas of the law have nothing to do with the Federal High Court and that it should have been adjudicated at the State High Court.
According to him, the Federal High Court has areas of traditional jurisdiction which is limited in numbers in handling civil matter.
He added that the Nigeria Customs Service is only trying to abuse the process of court, stressing that they just want to oppress his client.
‘’If you look at the allegation made against Mr. Lucky Amiwero in which they said that he wrote to the president with forged letter heads of NCMDLCA, he resisted arrest by men of the Nigeria Customs Service, that he assaulted men of the customs from doing their work, these areas of the law has nothing to do with the powers of adjudication conferred on the Federal High Court in civil matters’’.
 ‘’The Federal High Court Act itself and section 251 of the 1999 constitution as amended, provided that for you to charge anybody with criminal proceedings at the Federal High Court, the offences must relate to, emanate from or pertain to these areas where the Federal High Court has its jurisdiction, therefore the Federal High Court has no jurisdiction to try anybody for writing to Mr. President and to forge document of any private organization’’.
He explained that since his client did not smuggle contraband into the country, the Federal High Court does not have any power to preside over the trial, adding that if his client were to be exchanging gun shots with Customs, then it will be possible for the Federal High Court to have the power to entertain such cases.
The case comes up on the November 27 at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos.