When judge awarded cost against me for unpreparedness – Belgore

Barrister Usman Kola Belgore is a 2014 graduate of law from Bayero University, Kano. He thereafter proceeded to the Abuja campus of the Nigerian Law School after which he was called to the Bar in 2015. He started his practice with M.O. Agboola & Co. (Grace Chambers) in Oshogbo, Osun State before he relocated back to Ilorin, Kwara state to join Tafa Ahmed & Co. towards the end of 2016. In January 2017, Belgore joined J.S.Bamigboye (SAN) & Co and later co-established a legal firm, Sulyman Belgore & Co in partnership with Yusuf Sulyman in June, 2019. In this interview with JIMOH SULYMAN, the Ilorin based legal practitioner talks about his most dramatic moment in practice thus far. Excerpts:
My most dramatic moment thus far was an incident that happened while I was still at the office of J.S. Bamigboye (SAN) & Co. At a time, the Head of the Chambers (HOC), Mr. J.S. Muhammad rod to my house and drop the case file of a matter before Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court with me. He told me the matter is for hearing but the case won’t go on. He said I should just go and probably collect a date that he has another matter elsewhere; it was my first year in the office. I read the file and proceeded to court. When the case was called, I discovered the matter was ready for continuation of hearing, contrary to what the HOC told me. I did my best by cross examining the witness, however, there was an application to bring in another witness but the said application was not in the file due to the fact that my predecessor that was handling the case wasn’t around to give me adequate briefing on it. I wasn’t aware of it hence the application was moved without opposition because we didn’t file any counter affidavit to it and it was granted by the court. They were asked to proceed with the calling of the witness. That came as a surprise to me and met me unprepared because I didn’t have the witness deposition on oath in the case file. I sought for an adjournment on that basis. However, at that point the HOC came into court while I was seeking for adjournment and was ready to take over at that point. The learned Judge was of the view that he would either award N5000 cost against us if the HOC is allowed to come in and takeover or we take an adjournment and receive the award of cost N10,000 against us. Unfortunately, the money involved in that case was just N110,000.00 unlawfully withdrew from the account of our client. The HOC being well acquainted with the facts of the case whispered to me to concede to the cost of N5000 which I did and he took over. We later settled the case when the matter was adjourned for judgment; the bank paid back the amount and the case was withdrawn.