The legal community in Imo State is abuzz with questions awaiting answers over an unusual procedural fix in which a matter currently pending before a Magistrate Court has been inexplicably resurrected in a Customary Court.
The case revolves around a dispute originally before the Magistrate Court, which took an unprecedented turn when the respondent allegedly bypassed standard legal channels. Court filings suggest that the respondent introduced the identical matter into a Customary Court, which will begin its own proceedings Thursday, December 11, creating a perplexing overlap.
The charge sheet of the original case at the Magistrate’s Court of Imo State, Ahiazu Mbaise, suggested that the defendants, Ugochukwu Anyanwu and five others, were being prosecuted on a three-count charge bordering on stealing and destruction of property at the construction project site of Mr. Cyprian Ugo at Oru Ahiara Community.
But curiously, the defendant, Ugochukwu Anyanwu, introduced the identical matter at the Ahiazu Mbaise Customary Court sitting at Obodo Ahiara, and ironically included Cyprian Ugo as defendant.
The case will be coming up Thursday, at the Customary Court.
Experts are questioning how a case already within the jurisdiction of a Magistrate Court could be entertained by a Customary Court without a formal order or appeal.
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