Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja has dismissed a suit filed against the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff, Phillip Undie, had filed the suit on May 21, 2019, asking the court to sack Gbajabiamila as a member of the House of Representatives and disqualify him from contesting the leadership of the lower legislative chamber.<\/p>\n
Undie had claimed that Gbajabiamila was convicted by the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia in the United States of America in 2007 for fraud and dishonesty and therefore, was not qualified to be elected a member of the National Assembly and a Speaker of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
On June 14, 2019 Undie\u2019s lawyer, Akeem Olasupo announced his withdrawal from the case, marked: FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/539\/2019.<\/p>\n
Gbajabiamila\u2019s lawyer, Femi Adedeji, queried Olasupo\u2019s decision to withdraw his appearance without withdrawing the case.<\/p>\n
Lawyers to the other defendants did not oppose Olasupo\u2019s withdrawal as plaintiff\u2019s lawyer, but noted that he ought to have withdrawn the case too.<\/p>\n
In a ruling on Tuesday, Justice Ekwo granted Olasupo\u2019s request to withdraw from the case, but noted that: \u201cThe plaintiff\u2019s counsel withdrew from the case, but he did not withdraw the case, meaning the case is still before this court,\u201d and adjourned till June 17, 2019.<\/p>\n
At the resumed hearing of the case, a new lawyer engaged by the plaintiff, S.D Okoro adopted a notice of discontinuance of the suit filed by the plaintiff and prayed the court to strike out the case.<\/p>\n
Gbajabiamila\u2019s lawyer, Adedeji did not oppose the plaintiff\u2019s decision to discontinue the case, but argued that, since parties have joined issues, with the defendants filing counter processes, the appropriate order for the court to make was that of dismissal.<\/p>\n
Adedeji also urged the court to grant the cost of N1million against the plaintiff.<\/p>\n
He also prayed for a cost of N1m to be awarded against the plaintiff.<\/p>\n
Ruling, Justice Ekwo said: \u201cOn the last day of hearing of this case, Mr. Okoro appeared for the plaintiff, but there were no processes before the court, showing that there was a change of counsel.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday (June 24, 2019), I take notice of a process titled \u2018change of counsel\u2019 by Mr. Okoro dated June 20, 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, I am satisfied that Mr. Okoro has authority to represent the plaintiff in this case and therefore, entitled to conduct the case in accordance with the law. Now, Mr. Okoro has adopted the notice of discontinuance, dated June 17, 2019 and this is happening after issues have been joined in the substantive matter. Mr. Okoro is praying that the matter be struck out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have listened to Mr. Adedeji; counsel for the 1st defendant, and on the consequential order to be made at this stage. It is the law that when parties have joined issues and the plaintiff seeks to withdraw the case, the proper order is that dismissing the suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is in this like that I agree with the learned counsel for the 1st defendant, and I hereby make an order dismissing this suit. On the issue of cost, I will not make any order as to cost, since parties decided to end the matter peacefully. I allow them to go home without grudges against each other,\u201d Justice Ekwo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja has dismissed a suit filed against the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. The plaintiff, Phillip Undie, had filed the suit on May 21, 2019, asking the court to sack Gbajabiamila as a member of the House of Representatives and disqualify him from contesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":11990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[246,69,38,343],"class_list":["post-11988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-community","tag-court","tag-election","tag-fraud"],"yoast_head":"\n