The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has made mockery of the immediate past Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo’s law degree, following the defeat he (Keyamo) suffered at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku, stated this in Abuja, while asking Keyamo to throw his law degree into the dustbin as it was nothing but useless.
Recall that Keyamo had, before the 2023 general elections, written a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and other anti-graft agencies in the country to arrest and prosecute Atiku over alleged money laundering when he served as Vice President under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Monday, Atiku’s spokesman, Shaibu said that while Keyamo was eager “to satisfy his paymasters”, he did not wait for up to three days for the EFCC and other agencies to act on his petition but hurriedly filed a suit before the court seeking an order to mandate the agencies to act on his petition.
But it was gathered that on Monday, the presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho, dismissed Keyamo’s suit on the grounds of incompetence and thereafter, awarded a N10 million fine against Keyamo.
According to Shaibu, the judgment was clear evidence that the former minister was only playing cheap politics.
He said that “Keyamo’s incompetence has been confirmed by Justice Omotosho. One wonders how he was elevated to the rank of senior advocate. Despite several clarifications that the allegations levelled against Atiku were trumped up, Keyamo refused to listen to reason.”
Shaibu further stated that “Rather than act like a refined lawyer as expected of a senior advocate, he decided to act like a political jobber”. Now, he has been disgraced before the entire world. This was a man who served under the legendary Chief Gani Fawehinmi? What a shame.”
He noted that Keyamo’s latest defeat was not surprising “given the fact that he had lost many high profile cases in court while he was an EFCC prosecutor.”
Shaibu added that “When the jobless former minister was filing the frivolous case, we informed Nigerians that he would lose. The prediction was in line with his antecedent as a failed EFCC prosecutor. Today, we have been justified.
“He was the EFCC prosecutor against Governor Timipre Sylva but he lost the case. He represented the EFCC against Femi Fani-Kayode and also lost.
“Even the case he instituted against the Lagos State House of Assembly during the Tinubu certificate scandal marked ID/639M/99, Keyamo didn’t do better. In the case of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, in which Keyamo was the lead prosecutor, it also ended in another abysmal failure.
“Keyamo made a name for himself by constantly filing frivolous suits in order to entertain the media. He needs to throw his law certificate into the dustbin so he can face his job as a social media influencer.”