Nkanga’s biography: Justice Archibong orders out of court settlement
Dennis Udoma
The State High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has ordered out of court settlement in the suit against the executors of the Will of Late Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga (retd) by sponsors of the deceased biography.
The presiding judge in the case, HU/133/2022, Justice Archibong Archibong gave the directive when the case came up for mentioning on Tuesday.
According to Justice Archibong, it was unnecessary for the parties in the suit to be in court for a matter that could be settled out of court to allow the deceased and statesman rest peacefully.
The court, however, ordered the deceased family not to spend the money it should have used in settling the claimants on payment of professional fees to lawyers.
The deceased family, it is recalled, was dragged to court by the claimants for unlawfully defacing and launching of the biography titled, “Leadership Footprints of Idongesit Nkanga, OFR” without their consent.
The claimants, Msrs Usienemfon Joseph Akpakpan and Mr. Umana Edet James prayed the court to grant them reliefs, by payment of compensation for the book production amounting to millions of naira.
However, Pastor Princewill Isong Daniel , Mrs Mosunsola Idongesit Nkanga, Elder Amanam Okon Nkanga and Chairman , Executors of the Will of the deceased, Barrister Jacob Udobang, Secretary Executors of the Will; as well as Mr Etietop Idongesit Nkanga, who are defebdants in the case were also accused of secretly launching the controversial biography and reaped several millions of naira without knowledge of the sponsors.
The claimants alleged that, the defendants breached the memorandum of understanding and trust relating to the production of the contentious biography by defacing the original title to short changed them.
Late Idongesit Nkanga, was former Military Administrator of Akwa Ibom State and, also Chairman, PANDEF; a PAN Niger Delta organization.
Counsel to the defendants, Barrister Uwemedimo Nwoko (SAN), represented by Barrister Utibe Nwoko have agreed with the decision of the Court for peaceful settlement of the matter.
He described the case as a family fued that can be settled out of court adding that, their doors are open for negotiation anytime.
According to Nwoko, “It is a family feud and, I think as much as they can, we should try and resolve it.
“I will encourage settlement possibly out of court because to me; anything that involves somebody’s name and, has to do with Executors of the Will (a brother to the deceased), the children, the wife is a family issue.
“To me I think all parties should try as much as possible to ensure that, the matter is settled out of court.
“The man has died and should be allowed to rest in peace; and more importantly, the family name”.
Counsel to the claimants Barrister Victor Nkanang briefly after the court session blamed, the family of late Idongesit Nkanga for going wrong with persons who laboured to write the book on the deceased name.
According to him, “We cannot also run away from the fact that, late Idongesit Nkanga’s family has gone wrong with some persons.
“Remember that in Court; we always say where there is wrong , there is a remedy” and the only place you can get remedy is the court.
“To show good faith on our path, we took ourselves to them for settlement; we have worked very hard; give us compensation for what we have worked for.
“But unfortunately, they refused after we have traversed the whole country to gather materials for the production of the biography. And when it was time to allow the publication, they changed the name; that is why we are in court .
“Therefore, we have seriously sounded that, we should be compensated, not to trickily tricked us out”.
The case was adjourned to November 3, 2022 for both parties to reach a resolution and report back to the court.
