UniAbuja VC’s lawsuit awaits judgement from court

A lawsuit brought against Prof. Rasheed Na’Allah, vice chancellor of the University of Abuja, was postponed by a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday.

After the plaintiffs’ attorney, Maxwell Opara, and Na’Allah’s attorney, Ogwu Onoja, SAN, adopted respective procedures and presented their cases in favour of and against the suit, Justice Inyang Ekwo postponed the matter for a judgement.

The judge stated that the parties would be informed of the date of judgement.

“I can request a fiat from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to deliver the judgement during vacation if I am unable to give it to you before vacation, provided that I have your consent,” he stated.

Professors Saint Gbilekaa, Edmund Nwanna, Sunday Ejaro, Kasim Umar, Wesley Nafarnda, and Dr. Uju Patrick were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed under the case number FHC/ABJ/CS/683/2024.

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The VC, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), and the National Universities Commission (NUC) were sued by the six senior academics who felt wronged, ranked first through fourth in the lawsuit.

In the original summons, they asked the court to rule on whether it is legitimate and lawful for Na’Allah to call for the conduct of new elections for the Senate and Congregation council members while the previous elected members’ four-year term is still in effect and valid, taking into account Section 2A, 2(3) of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003 (also known as the Universities Autonomy Act No. 1, 2007).

As a result, they requested an order of injunction prohibiting the VC from moving forward with holding new elections for the Senate and Congregation Council until after the four-year term of the current elected members expires on July 15, 2025.

But the plaintiffs claimed that Na’Allah held a new election for the institution’s Governing Council members on May 28 while the case was still ongoing in court.

In light of this, the irate lecturers filed an ex-parte motion to halt the inauguration of the recently elected council members through the representation of their attorney, Opara.

They requested seven reliefs in the June 5th move ex parte, one of which was an order of interim injunction instructing all parties to keep the status quo ante bellum until the action’s outcome was known.

In addition to other relief, they requested an order of interim injunction prohibiting the first defendant (VC) and others from introducing the university’s newly elected internal council members until the motion on notice is resolved.

Na’Allah was given a June 7 deadline by Justice Ekwo to come before the court on June 13 and provide justification for why the inauguration should not be postponed.

In accordance with the ruling, the VC filed an affidavit to show cause on June 11 through his attorney, Onoja.

In addition, he submitted a notice of preliminary objection and a counteraffidavit, pleading with the court to reject the lawsuit as being without merit.