By Tony Ochela
High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting in Maitama yesterday adjourned hearing on the leadership crisis rocking the Staff Multipurpose Cooperative Society of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, till November 29.
Justice Charles Agbaza took the decision, following an application by counsel to the 13th defendant who said he had been served the originating summons just two days ago and he would need time to file a reply.
The applicants also asked the court to stay proceedings on the matter pending the decision of the Court of Appeal on an application before it.
Counsels to the defendants did not oppose the application and Justice Agbaza adjourned the matter to November 29 to rule on both issues.
Eze Onwuneme and three other aggrieved members of the cooperative society, Chamberlin Ajagba; Alhaji Ibrahim Yakubu and Bello Mohammed Garba, brought the case, marked: FCTHC/ABJ/CV/2460/2024, before the court.
Listed as defendants in the suit are Engr Josiah Omole, Udo Iboro, Ituah Aikhena, Osondu Ibeji, Farouk Achimugu, Prince Etuwewe, Nura Bello, Micheal Adejoh, Sambo Abdulaziz and Vincent Orji.
Others are Saint Kamvene, Braimoh Sunday Joseph and Galadima Immanuel, Engr Iliya Yusuf, Musa Garba Abubakar, and NNPC Ltd Staff Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Abuja.
The court had in its previous sitting on Thursday, October 17, adjourned further hearing in the case to November 8 after the defendants, in a motion, asked Justice Agbaza to recuse himself from presiding over the case.
The defendants, through their team of lawyers led by Mr Ibrahim Idris (SAN), asked the judge to recuse himself, insisting that they were not comfortable in his ability to resolve the leadership dispute, objectively.
They alleged that some of the interim orders the judge made in the matter reflect his bias against them.
“The defendants, on whose behalf the instant application is brought, have lost total and complete faith and confidence in the ability of the presiding judge in this matter to continue to entertain this suit and serve justice without bias.
“The conduct of the presiding judge during the hearing of this suit and particularly judging from the nature of the orders of the presiding judge so far, it only points to one impeachable conclusion that the defendants are not likely to access justice in this court, hence the request that the presiding judge recuse himself from presiding over this suit,” the 15 NNPCL staff members added.
The defendants, in the motion they predicated on Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, noted that the court had on October 3, while there was a contention between two lawyers over who was validly briefed to represent the Cooperative Society (16th defendant), ordered Lekan Ogunbayo to appear to clarify who he had instructed as the President of the Management Committee of the Cooperative, to defend it in the matter.
According to the defendants, “The fulcrum of the substantive suit principally revolves around whether the tenure of the Management Committee led by Mr Ogunbayo (which had been removed by the Congress of the Association as at then) was subsisting.
“The status quo ante bellum was that an interim management committee led by the second and third defendants as president and secretary, respectively, had been appointed by the congress of the 16th defendant and indeed, had been performing the functions of their offices, hence the challenge of the said decision by the claimants.
“The decision of the court ordering the appearance of Ogunbayo in the circumstance, had prejudged the suit at the interlocutory stage.
“Furthermore, the order made by the court on October 10, directing that the interim order of injunction made on May 30 shall abide pending the hearing of the consolidated applications and substantive suit without hearing the defendants on whether or not it is suitable to grant an injunction in the circumstance, amounts to denial of fair hearing of the defendants.
“The decision of the court to extend the interim order of injunction in the circumstance without hearing the other side, amounts to perversion of justice,” they added.
Onwuneme, Ajagba, Yakubu and Garba are, in the main suit, among others, querying the running of the group’s affairs.
The plaintiffs want, among others, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the second-15th defendants and their agents or servants from parading themselves as members of the management committee of the cooperative society.
