There was big drama at the court of Hon Justice Josephine Oyefeso at the High Court of Lagos State in Ikeja this Wednesday, April 10, 2019 as lawyer to artiste manager, Efe Omorogbe, Mr. U. Wenyi of Ituah Chambers, pleaded and begged the Judge not to award further costs against Efe Omorogbe.

The problem arose because Justice Oyefeso had on February 13, 2019 ordered Mr. Omorogbe to pay COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji the sum of N200,000.00 as cost for truncating the trial in two defamation cases brought by Chief Okoroji against Omorogbe.

When the cases were called on April 10, it turned out that close to two months after the court order, Efe Omorogbe had not paid the costs awarded by the judge. The team of Chief Okoroji’s lawyers led by Mr. James Ononiwu of Whitedove Solicitors and Enoch Aguocha of Commercial Practice Solicitors, insisted that the attempt by Efe Omorogbe’s lawyer to move motions regularizing Omorogbe’s defence in the matters would not go on until he paid the debt owed Chief Okoroji.

In fact, Okoroji’s lawyers asked for further costs as a result of the disobedience of the order of court. At first, the judge sided with Chief Okoroji’s lawyers but Efe’s lawyer began to plead profusely that his client was saddled with too many legal fees and costs everywhere and to have more costs imposed on his client when he is still trying to pay the earlier cost would be too much for him to bear. The judge then decided to stand down the cases.

When the cases were recalled, Efe Omorogbe’s lawyer told the judge that he had just spoken with Mr. Omorogbe on the phone and that Omorogbe had undertaken to pay the costs before the next adjourned date. The judge waved the new costs and insisted that the existing costs be paid consistent with the undertaking. She then adjourned the two defamation cases for ADR processes.