Kogi court adjourns indefinitely ruling in suit stopping removal of CJ

As Police Withdraw Personnel From Court Midway Into Session
A state High Court sitting in Koton-Karfe, Kogi State, yesterday, adjourned sine die, a suit instituted by the state judiciary against the executive over alleged attempts to illegally remove the state Chief Judge (CJ), Justice Nasir Ajanah, following the sudden withdrawal of Police personnel attached to the court, midway into the Judge’s ruling on a motion.

The court has also reserved ruling in the motion NO. HC/KK02M/201, seeking nullification of the April 2, this year’s Resolution of the state House of Assembly, recommending the removal of the Chief Judge.The presiding Judge, Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, disclosed this in Koton-Karfe after a botched sitting in the suit no. HC/KK/11CV/2018, instituted by the Chief Judge and Chief Registrar, Alhaji Yahaya Adamu.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), at the resumed sitting yesterday, lead counsel to parties in the suit adopted their written addresses on the motion.The claimants/applicants in the motion had prayed for an order of the court nullifying and setting aside the resolution purportedly passed by the House at its plenary sitting of April 2, in defiance of the pendency of the suit.

The action of the legislative arm, according to the motion, also defied the interim injunctive orders of court by acting upon a report submitted to it by its Public Accounts Committee.R.A. Lawal-Rabana (SAN), Abeni Mohammed (SAN), A.M. Aliyu (SAN), Tawo E. Tawo (SAN) and three other lawyers represented the claimants/applicants.Mohammed said the motion was brought pursuant to Order 11, Rules 1 and 2 of Kogi State High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2006.

The motion has Kogi State House of Assembly; Speaker of the House; Bello Hassan Abdullahi, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee; the Governor of Kogi State and the Attorney General of Kogi State as defendants/respondents.Adopting their written address, Mohammed said: “We rely on the 16-paragraph affidavit supporting the motion and the exhibits “A” to “G” and urge the court to grant the prayers in particular, Exhibit A and B (the injunctive orders of the court).

Sale Sule, leading one other Counsel, Yusuf Goodluck, for the defendants/respondents, said he had filed a counter-affidavit with an eight-paragraph affidavit, adding that they relied on the averments.Justice Omolaye-Ajileye, after adoption of the addresses by the Counsel, went on a two-hour stand down to deliver his ruling on the motion.

The Judge, after a few minutes into the two-hour stand down, called Counsel to the parties into his office to intimate them on the security situation as a result of the sudden withdrawal of Police personnel from the court.He said with the security situation, with the sudden withdrawal of Police officers and men from the court and the intelligence reports reaching him, it was not safe for the court to continue sitting.Justice Omolaye-Ajileye, therefore, adjourned the case indefinitely, but told the Counsel that they would be notified once the court fixed a date for ruling on the motion.