By Douglas Ogbankwa, Esq.
I read with profound circumspection a repost by my respected Learned Friend- Sylvester Udemezue, who goes by the sobriquet UDEMS. While I find his analysis interesting, I state with certainty and unequivocation that his analysis is not the position of the Law on the Matter and I rebut same with the following incontrovertible Points.
1. There is no Section of the Constitution where the nomenclature Mobile Court is used or where Mobile Court is mentioned in any way. Mobile Courts are only mentioned in Practice Directions of some Chief Judges. Practice Directions are Procedural Tenets accentuating an existing Law. They themselves do not have the force of Law. They only cover Lacunae in Procedure and they themselves can not create a Mobile Court.
2. The Magistrates Court Laws of Each State creates the Magistrate Court and designates the cadre of Magistrate that can superintend over the Magistrates,’ Court. The Laws do not in any way indicate that Magistrates can sit at or preside Mobile Courts. The Law on Statute of Interpretation is that, The Express Mention of a thing is the Exclusion of another
No person can unilaterally imput to a Law what is not expressly provided for by the Law.
As it pertains to Statutes ,Statutes are to be given their ordinary meanings when there is no ambiguity whatsoever and when giving the Words their ordinary meaning does not create any haziness or indistinctness .This is trite and does not require any elucidation with a staris decisis.
3. My Learned friend stretched imagination as to construing a Locus in quo to be a Mobile is an erudition against logic and the Law on the Matter.
A Locus In Quo is an Adhoc visit to the subject matter of Litigation.
Is My Learned Friend suggesting for example that If a Mobile Court sat at Tinubu Square in Lagos that Tinubu Square is the Locus In Quo?This proposition does not find any place in the thread of the discourse. I discontenuance same with all sense of equanimity and I consider it a distracting fallacy of Red Herring.
I dare my Respected Learned to mention any Law creating any Mobile Court. The Promoters of the Mobile should should solicit for expert Opinions to get them out of their Cul De Sac. They can not proceed with Illegality to curb another illegality.
A Legal Process must stand on the Law and Legality ,failure of which we may have a balance of illegalities and the Society will be worse off
-Douglas Ogbankwa Esq.
