Embattled ex-beauty queen, Ibinabo Fiberesima, has urged the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, which last Friday affirmed the five years’ imprisonment imposed on her by a Lagos State High Court.
The actress is also asking the Court of Appeal to release her on bail pending when the Supreme Court would hear and determine her appeal against the appellate court’s judgment.
In a six-paragraph affidavit of urgency filed in support of her bail application before the Court of Appeal, one Victor Eden said Fiberesima had just undergone a surgery for breast cancer and was still under the watch of her doctors.
Eden said, “Her (Fiberesima) wound has not fully healed and as such she is afraid that her continued stay in the prison may endanger her life as she will not have access to special medical attention.
“It will be in the interest of justice and for her health and safety for the appellant to be admitted to bail pending the hearing and determination of the appellant’s appeal before the Supreme Court.”
But the bail application suffered a setback on Thursday as the Court of Appeal adjudged it as incompetent.
Fiberesima’s lawyer, Nnaemeka Amaechina, had told the appellate court panel comprising Justices U.I. Ndukwe-Anyanwu, Samuel Oseji and Tijani Abubakar that he had served the bail application on the Lagos State Government, which is the respondent in the appeal.
But Justice Ndukwe-Anyanwu, who led the panel, observed that copies of the court judgments leading to Fiberesima’s conviction and sentence were not attached to the bail application.
The judge said failure to attach the judgments had rendered the application incompetent, adding that the options left to the court in the circumstance were to either strike out the bail application or adjourn for the appellant to do the needful.
Amaechina opted for an adjournment to enable him to “do the needful”.
The panel consequently adjourned till April 7 to hear the application.
No comments:
Post a Comment