Sequel to an application filed by a lawyer, Azubuike Oko, seeking to stop the appointment of 12 judges to the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, and others, on Thursday, prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss the suit.
Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN) who appeared for Ariwoola, the Chief Judge (CJ) of FCT, Hussein Baba-Yusuf, and the National Judicial Council (NJC), made the plea while adopting their processes and presenting their argument against the suit.
In a preliminary objection filed on March 1, 2024, Kehinde urged the court to strike out or dismiss the for want of jurisdiction.
The Senior lawyer, who hinged his arguments on four grounds said, under Section 6(6)(c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution said, the suit is non-justiciable.
He argued that Oko, the plaintiff, lacked the locus standi (legal right) to institute the action adding that, “Under Section 245C(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the National Industrial Court of Nigeria has the exclusive jurisdiction to determine matters relating to or connected with the employment of judicial officers.
Kemi Esene, a litigation secretary in the law firm of Kehinde and Partners said, in an affidavit in support of the preliminary objection that the court had dismissed a similar suit marked: FC/ABJCS/602/2020 filed by JRP Foundation Ltd against the former President Muhammadu Buhari and 24 others in 2020.
Esene said the suit had challenged the recommendation of 21 persons by the NJC to Buhari for appointment as judges of the High Court of the FCT.
She said the plaintiff had alleged that the Judicial Service Committee of the FCT acted in bad faith and grossly abused the power vested in it when it submitted the list of nominees for appointment as judges of the FCT High Court to the NJC.
The lawyer averred that the court, in its judgment, upheld the preliminary objection of the defendants on the ground that, since the plaintiff was not a party to the procedure for the appointment of the judicial officers, the foundation had no locus to institute the action.
Besides, she said the court held that the Federal High Court had no jurisdiction over the matter because the subject matter had to do with the employment of the persons recommended by the NJC to be appointed as judges by the former president.
The trial Judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned the suit till March 15 for judgment.
It would be recalled that the judge had, on February 23, rejected Oko’s ex-parte motion seeking to stop Baba-Yusuf from appointing 12 judges into the bench of the court.
Justice Ekwo, in a ruling on the ex-parte motion moved by Emmanuel Emerenini, directed the plaintiff to put the defendants on notice of the motion ex-parte within two days of the order, for them to show cause why the prayers on the motion ex parte ought not to be granted in the next adjourned date.
Oko, in the motion, joined Justice Baba-Yusuf, NJC, the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), the CJN, the President of Nigeria and the AGF as 1st to 6th defendants respectively.
The plaintiff sought an order directing the parties in the suit to maintain status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and determination of his motion on notice.
Oko said he hails from Ebonyi, which had been routinely excluded and marginalised with respect to the appointment of judges of the High Court of FCT by Baba-Yusuf, NJC and FJSC.
The lawyer averred that, as a matter of fact, it was the CJ (Baba-Yusuf) that computes the names of qualified lawyers from selected states of the federation and transmitted to FJSC for recommendation to NJC for appointment by the President of Nigeria as judges of the FCT High Court.
He averred that the states mentioned for the nomination of lawyers for appointment as judges into the 12 positions were Bauchi, Bayelsa, Enugu, Imo, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, and Zamfara.
He, however, alleged that currently, Oyo and Kogi “already had two serving judges in the FCT High Court, and the two states were given additional slots, to now have three judges, despite the fact that Ebonyi State has no single serving judge in the High Court of the FCT.”
Story by Nigerian Tribune
