The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, dismissed a suit seeking an
\norder restraining Mr Mohammed Adamu from parading himself as the
\nInspector-General (I-G) of Police.<\/p>\n
Justice Ahmed Mohammed gave the ruling following a motion exparte with
\nsuit number: FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/106\/21 filed by Maxwell Opara, a legal
\npractitioner, and argued by his lawyer, Ugochukwu Ezekiel.<\/p>\n
Opara had sued President Mohammadu Buhari, Mr Mohammed Adamu, the
\nAttorney General of the Federation and the Ministry of Justice as 1st to
\n4th defendants respectively.<\/p>\n
Opara, in the motion dated Feb. 10 and filed Feb. 11, had prayed the
\ncourt for an order of interim injunction, restraining Adamu from
\nparading himself as I-G pending the determination of the matter and for
\nan abridgement of time within which the defendants should respond to the
\napplication.<\/p>\n
Although the I-G was represented by Alex Izinyon, SAN, the 1st, 3rd and
\n4th defendants were not represented in court.
\nWhen the case was mentioned, the applicant\u2019s lawyer, Ezekiel, told the
\ncourt that the 1st, 3rd and 4th defendants were duly served with the
\noriginating processes and the hearing notices for the day\u2019s sitting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were equally aware of today\u2019s sitting because they were served
\nwith hearing notice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He informed the court that he had a motion exparte dated Feb. 10 and
\nfiled Feb. 11.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said the motion sought for an order to restrain Adamu from
\nfurther parading himself as IGP and for the court to abridge the time
\nwithin which the defendants would file their processes.<\/p>\n
Izinyon, who appeared for Adamu, said he was in court in protest because
\ndefendants had 30 days within which to file their responses in respect
\nto the main suit.<\/p>\n
According to him, we received the hearing notice two days ago.<\/p>\n
He urged the court not to grant his request to move the motion.<\/p>\n
But Ezekiel argued that since the motion he planned to move was an
\nexparte, counsel to the defence was not supposed to respond.<\/p>\n
He cited Order 26, Rule 6 of the court to back his argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrder 26, Rules 6 and 7 of this court allows the plaintiff to bring an
\nexparte motion to court at the back of the other party.<\/p>\n
\u201cA motion exparte is an application filed by a party who wishes to get
\nsome reliefs at the back of the other party in the interim,\u201d he said.
\nJustice, who agreed with the order cited by Ezekiel, ordered that the
\nmotion be moved.<\/p>\n
Moving the motion, the lawyer told the court that the application was
\nbrought pursuant to Sections 215 and 216 of the 1999 Constitution (as
\namended), Section 7 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020 and provision of the
\ncourt.<\/p>\n
He urged the court to grant the reliefs sought in the interest of
\nnational security.<\/p>\n
Ruling, Justice Mohammed held that since all the defendants had already
\nbeen served with the originating processes in the suit, it would be
\nunfair to grant the exparte motion when the defence had within 30 days
\nto respond to the main suit.<\/p>\n
The judge said such order would be contrary to the provision of the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrayer one for an order of interim injunction is hereby refuse,d,\u201d he
\nruled.<\/p>\n
Mohammed, who said the second prayer shall be a notice to the
\ndefendants, adjourned the matter until Feb. 24.
\nHe ordered that 1st, 3rd and 4th defendants be served with hearing
\nnotices.(NAN)<\/p>\n
The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, dismissed a suit seeking an order restraining Mr Mohammed Adamu from parading himself as the Inspector-General (I-G) of Police. Justice Ahmed Mohammed gave…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n