suit challenging the eligibility of President Goodluck Jonathan to
contest the forthcoming presidential election.
Though the suit was originally slated for hearing, however, the
plaintiffs in the matter, Professor Tunde Samuel, Dr. Junaidu
Mohammed, Mr. Rasak Adeogun and Yahaya Ezeemoo Ndu, made a U-turn and
withdrew the case.
Immediately the suit was called-up for hearing, counsel to the
plaintiffs, Mr. Alex Okoja, prayed the court to terminate further
proceeding on the matter, saying they had already entered a notice of
discontinuance at the court's registry.
Okoja told the court that his clients filed the notice of
discontinuance since February 4, though he failed to give any reason
behind their sudden lack of zeal to pursue the case to its logical
conclusion.
He said the withdrawal notice had already been served on President Jonathan.
Meanwhile, President Jonathan who was represented by his lawyer Mr.
Ade Okeaya-Inneh,SAN, while acknowledging receipt of the notice for
withdrawal of the matter, urged the court to award cost against the
plaintiffs for filing a "frivolous suit" against him.
"My lord we have been served and we have no objection, but we will be
asking for cost. We have been in and out of court on this particular
matter.
"We have already filed our processes. This matter was filed by seven
SANs, and I assume with greatest respect that they should have taken
out time to evaluate the merit of the matter before bringing us
here", Jonathan's lawyer argued.
In his ruling, Justice Mohammed while striking out the suit, awarded a
cost of N50,000 against the plaintiffs.
According to the Judge, "In law, cost follows events. A party who took
out an action against another party and went ahead to cause a hearing
notice to be issued by the court on that party, only to turn around
and withdraw the matter, must be ready for some sanction.
--Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment