The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned for judgement, a suit filed against the University of Abuja, vice chancellor Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah.
The suit is on the dispute over the tenure of the university’s Senate.
The judge, Inyang Ekwo, adjourned the matter for judgment after counsel for the plaintiffs, Maxwell Opara, and Na’Allah’s lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), adopted their processes and argued their case for and against the suit.
Ekwo said a date for judgement would be communicated to the parties.
AIT gathered that the plaintiffs, comprising four professors – Saint Gbilekaa, Edmund Nwanna, Sunday Ejaro, Kasim Umar, and Wesley Nafarnda alongside Uju Patrick, had filed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/683/2024.
The six aggrieved senior lecturers sued the vice-chancellor, the Nigerian president, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) over the alleged arbitrary termination of the tenure of the university’s Senate and council.
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In the originating summons, they prayed the court to determine whether having regard to Section 2A, 2 (3) of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 2003 as Amended, otherwise called the Universities Autonomy Act No. 1, 2007, is lawful and valid for Professor Na’Allah to arbitrarily call for the conduct of fresh Senate and Congregation council members elections while the last elected members’ four years tenure is still valid and subsisting.
They therefore sought an order of injunction, restraining the VC from taking any steps towards conducting any fresh election for Senate and congregation of Council members until the tenure of the last elected members’ four years expires on July 15 2025.
The plaintiffs alleged that while the matter was still pending before the court, Professor Na’Allah, on May 28, conducted another election for the Governing Council members of the institution.
Against this backdrop, the aggrieved lecturers filed an ex-parte motion to seek an urgent order to stop the inauguration of the newly elected council members.
In the motion ex-parte filed on June 6, they sought seven prayers, including an order of interim injunction directing all parties to maintain status quo ante bellum pending the determination of the motion on notice.
They also sought an order of interim injunction restraining the vice chancellor and others from conducting any inauguration of the newly elected internal council members of the university pending the determination of the motion on notice, among other reliefs.
Justive Ekwo had, on June 7, ordered Professor Na’Allah to appear before the court on June 13, to show cause why the planned inauguration should not be stopped.
The VC, through his lawyer, Onoja, in compliance with the order, filed an affidavit on June 11, to show cause.
He equally filed a counter-affidavit and a notice of preliminary objection urging the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.
(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)
