Justice Peter
Affen, of an Abuja High Court, sitting at Jabi, Abuja has fixed July 17, to
commence hearing on the case instituted by Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos
State, seeking to restrain Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau from parading himself
as the factional chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF.
Fashola is
praying the court to stop Jang from parading himself as the leader of the NGF
and also issue an injunction restraining him from using the name ‘Nigeria
Governor’s Forum’ in respect of any other organisation that does not have the
36 governors as members and/or in any other manner inconsistent with the
Constitution of the Governor’s Forum.
The court fixed
the date amid controversy over who was duly briefed to represent the Board of
Trustees of the NGF which was joined as the 4th defendant in the matter.
After Chief Awa
Kalu, SAN, announced his representation for the 2ndand 4th defendants, another
lawyer, Mr. Friday Nwosu, stood up and told the court that he was the person
with the mandate to represent the 4th defendant.
Aside Jang who
is the 1stdefendant, the other defendants in the suit are the Director-General
of the NGF, Asishana Bayo Okauru, and the factional Sole Administrator of the
body under Jang, Mr. Osaro Onaiwu, who were all joined as 2ndand 3rddefendants
respectively.
Meanwhile, the court,
was, yesterday, told that the two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, who had on the
last adjourned date, engaged in war of words over who the court should
recognise as the bona fide lawyer representing Jang had peacefully resolved
their differences.
Consequently,
only Chief Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, appeared for Jang yesterday.
It will be
recalled that a mild drama had ensued on June 25 when two SANs, Oyeibo and Paul
Erokoro, locked horns in the open court over who should represent Jang.
At yesterday’s
proceeding, Erokoro, rather opted to transfer his legal services to the
3rddefendant, Onaiwu.
On controversy
over who should represent the 4thdefendant, Kalu, SAN, informed Justice Affen
that he made attempts to peacefully resolve the issue with Nwosu, but their
meeting ended in stalemate.
He said: “I
invited my learned friend, Nwosu to a meeting, which he attended, but
unfortunately, our meeting had been unproductive, leading to this situation in
which we find ourselves in.
In such a
situation, I therefore invite the court to resolve this matter for us.”
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