A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has rejected an application filed by the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, challenging President Goodluck Jonathan’s authority to suspend him from office.
Mr. Sanusi, who was suspended on February 20 said he was dissatisfied with the suspension, and therefore opted to challenge the decision in court.
But his exparte application asking the court to order his reinstatement was refused by the court.
In a 2 hour-long 84-page ruling, Justice Gabriel Kolawole upheld the submissions of the counsel to the President, Fabian Ajogwu, and that of the Counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation, Mike Ozekhome.
In the submissions, Mr. Kolawole and Mr. Ajogwu argued that since the case bordered on employee-employer relationship, the proper forum for the case to be heard remained the industrial court.
Rather than dismiss the case outright, the court instead invoked section 24 of the National Industrial Court Act 2012 and ordered that the case be transferred to the NIC since the issues raised bothered on labour matters.
In transferring the case, Justice Kolawole said that in line with sections 251 and 254 of the 1999 constitution, the CBN was a creation of the National Assembly, and Mr. Sanusi was a public officer.
The Judge further held that since Mr. Sanusi was an employee of the CBN by virtue of the CBN Act No 7 of 2007, he was a public servant whose appointment was a labour related matter that could be properly adjudicated upon by the industrial court.
In his preliminary objection filed in opposition to the plaintiff’s Originating Summons, Mr. Ajogwu had argued that the Federal High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
He therefore urged the court to decline jurisdiction and accordingly dismiss the suit.
Mike Ozekhome, who represented the AGF, canvassed similar arguments.
These arguments were upheld and the suit was accordingly referred to the NIC.
In its ruling, the court rejected the arguments advanced by Mr. Sanusi’s counsel, Kola Awodein, and Abubakar Mahmoud, who had argued that Mr. Sanusi was not an employee of the Federal Government, but that of the Board of the CBN.
The court also upheld the argument of the counsel to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Umoh, that the police boss should not have been joined as a party in the case.
Consequently, the court struck out the IGP’s name, who was sued as 3rd Defendant, holding that there was no cause of action against the IGP.
The defendants had also noted that Mr. Sanusi’s case lacked merit as it did not disclose any cause of action against them.
The lawyers insisted that the case was related to labour matter bordering on employment related issues, which ought not to have been brought before a federal high court and should be dismissed outright.
Justice Kolawole also rejected the argument that the case had no justiciable cause of action.
According to him, the reliefs sought by the plaintiff were justiceable and the case was properly filed.
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