Justice Jude Okeke of a Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, sentenced the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Olusegun Runsewe, to prison.
Runsewe made headlines a few months ago after he described Bobrisky as a national disgrace who needs to be ruthlessly dealt with urgently by the government.
The DG of NCAC said if Bobrisky’s activities were not promptly curtailed, the resultant effect would be worse than Ebola – the deadly virus that killed thousands in West Africa a few years ago.
In a ruling on Thursday, January 9, 2020, Justice Okeke sent Runsewe to prison for contempt of the order of court made on December 15, 2017.
In 2017, an FCT high court had restrained the NCAC from demolishing and evicting traders from the Abuja Arts and Crafts Village.
Despite the order, the village was closed by the police, who said they would only reopen on the orders of the NCAC director-general.
The villagers had alleged that the police arrested those who were guarding the market after the December 11, 2017, fire incident that razed down 35 shops and destroyed multimillion naira goods.
The traders then filed a suit seeking an order of the court committing Runsewe to prison for contempt of court.
Delivering the judgement, Okeke described Runsewe’s action as highly “contemptuous”.
The judge ordered him to remain in prison “until he purges himself contempt”.
He said the court sentence will serve as a lesson to other people in positions of power to abstain from disobeying court orders.
The judge ordered the inspector general of police (IGP) to arrest the NCAC boss with immediate effect and hand him over to the prisons, while he make amends.
