HND architects vow to sustain case against ARCON

Higher National Diploma Graduates of Architecture in Nigeria has vowed to sustain their legal battle against Architect Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) over alleged discrimination and non-registration of their members.

Counsel to the plaintiffs,Yinka Agboola told The Guardian that the decision followed the application filed by three HND graduates, who were in court against ARCON at the Federal High Court, Akure. In the application, three out of six plaintiffs namely, Dr. Oloruntoba Kayode, Mr. Ojo Francis Kehinde and Mr. Johnson Dele Victor had †through their new counsel, Esther Aladetimehin, sought† to withdraw from the case as well as change their counsel.

The trio in†the†application filed on July 1, 2019†claimed that they have settled their own part of the case with ARCON and therefore no more willing to be part of the three remaining plaintiffs and other HND graduates of Architecture spread throughout Nigeria.But Agboola at the last adjourned date said the application for withdrawal or discontinuance of the suit would not deter the remaining†plaintiffs from prosecuting their case being a class action instituted on behalf of thousands of architects with HND background.†

Although, a party has a right to counsel of his choice, the case is beyond the three Plaintiffs who have the intention of changing their counsel and settling†out of court, since the case is a class action filed in a representative capacity for thousands of HND graduates of architectureî, he said.

In the suit filed before Justice Audu Dogo the plaintiffs are challenging ARCONs discrimination against Higher National Diploma Graduates of Architecture.

At the last hearing date, Agboola, counsel to the plaintiffs drew the attention of the court to new processes about change of counsel served on him in court by three†out of the plaintiffs.He referred the Court to Order 9 Sub Rule 4(1) and (2) of Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules and stated that any party in a class action may be substituted since it is obvious they are no more interested in the case.

On his part,†counsel to the defendant, Victor Okafor†asked the court to strike out the case since some of the plaintiffs have filed an application to change counsel and discontinue or withdraw the case.But the court declined the application and†adjourned till November 4, 2019 for the plaintiffs to put their house in order.