Obado wants Sharon lawyer disqualified in murder case
Migori Governor Zachariah Okoth Obado now wants Professor George Wakackoyah disqualified from representing the victims in the murder case of Sharon Otieno and her unborn child.
The governor, in an affidavit, says Wajackoyah has privileged information from him and he is reasonably apprehensive that the information may be revealed and shared with the prosecution in the course of the proceedings.
The embattled governor stated that on the 23rd of September, 2018, just two days after his arrest regarding the murder case, Wajackoyah paid him a visit at Gigiri Police Station and sought his instructions on the case.
“He intimated to me that he had done a lot of consultancy work with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI),” Obado said in court documents.
According to Obado, Wajackoyah even showed him correspondence between himself and the two offices which convinced him that indeed he had had good knowledge in criminal law practice.
“He further confirmed that the two offices nevertheless cleared him to represent me.. With the assurance that there was no conflict of interest; I gave him instructions to represent me in this case,” said the Governor.
Obado says after he had given him instructions, he called his Advocates on record, Roger Sagana, to join them and make acquaintance with Wajackoyah who would also be representing him and discussed details of the matter with the two Advocates
Obado claims that when he was arraigned in Court on 24th September, 2018, there were several other counsel acting for him and on taking the Coram, Wajackoyah was excluded from the coram even though he was present in Court.
“Advocate took serious issue with the omission of his name from the Coram and informed me as much. In the subsequent Court appearance, he came to court and introduced himself as the Advocate for the victims. He continues to be on record for the victims to date,” said the governor.
“I also reasonably believe that the Advocate’s representation of the victims is aimed at advancing a certain mischief against me since there is a glaring conflict of interests on his part. The continued appearance of the Advocate for the victims in this matter will breach my Constitutional right to a fair trial and cause great miscarriage of justice,” he said in court documents.
In response Wajackoyah denied ever having instructions from Obado to represent him in the matter and at no point in time ever solicited or in any other way sought to be instructed by Obado to represent him in this case or any other case whatsoever.
“The application in its entirety is tantamount to intimidation, harassment and the causing of fear to the victims, and is simply a victimization venture by the Accused person,” he said in court documents.
He says he indeed visited Gigiri police station to see a client who had been arrested and in the process bumped into Obado and they only exchanged greetings and very brief pleasantries but at no time whatsoever did the brief pleasantries go anywhere near the directions of being offered any instructions to act for him in the case.
“If indeed the allegations by the 1st accused person that he instructed me was true, then nothing would have been easier, than for him to have availed the letter of instructions, any Short Text Message or any communication of the same to me and my acceptance,” he said in court documents.
Wajackoya said he was introduced to the mother of the late Sharon Otieno who requested whether he could act for her family in the matter.
“I indeed informed her that I would go to Court first to assess the matter and make my independent decision whether it was a matter that I would be willing to render my services for,” he said.
According to Wajackoya , he came to Court on the date Obado was arraigned and also on the second time when the matter came up and with good reasons.
“I never addressed the Court but instead observed keenly the proceedings so as to enable me to make a decision on whether it was a matter that I would want to come on record to act for the Victims,” he argued.
Justice Ngenye directed the application be heard on November 27.
