Court restrains ex-minister from holding public office

The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has restrained the immediate past Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Pauline Tallen, from holding public office unless she, within 30 days, apologises publicly for disrespecting the court.

The court, presided over by Justice U.P. Kekemeke, ruled that the injunction would become perpetual if Tallen, who served under former President Muhammadu Buhari, refused to apologise within the time given by the court.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had in December 2022 disagreed with Tallen, who was a minister at the time, for describing the decision of the Federal High Court in suit No. FHC/YL/12/2022 in Malam Nuhu Ribadu vs All Progressives Congress (APC) & two others delivered on October 14, 2022, as “a kangaroo judgment that should be rejected by well-meaning Nigerians.”

The NBA demanded an apology from the minister, failing which it would approach the court.

A statement by NBA’s National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Habeeb Lawal, yesterday reads in part: “Earlier today, December 18, 2023, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory found in favour of the Incorporated Trustees of the NBA and against the defendant, Dame Pauline Tallen, in suit No: CV/816/2016. Consequently, the court declared that the said statement of Dame Pauline Tallen (the defendant) was unconstitutional, careless, reckless, disparaging, a call to disobey the judgment of court and therefore contemptuous of the Federal High Court of Nigeria.”

The statement noted that the court also granted, among other reliefs “an injunction restraining Dame Pauline Tallen from holding any public office in Nigeria, unless she purges herself of the ignoble conduct by publishing a personally-signed apology letter to Nigerians and the judiciary.”

The NBA, which said that it remained committed to defending the integrity of the judiciary, while ensuring that those who seek to denigrate the judiciary were brought to book, also vowed to call out any judicial officer who fails to abide by the judicial code of conduct, even as it urged judicial officers to take their oath seriously and avoid actions and omissions that would give the appearance of compromise.