Court to deliver judgement on UniAbuja Senate’s tenure dispute suit

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday adjourned a suit filed against the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Abuja, Rasheed Na’Allah, a professor, for judgment.

The suit is about 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 Mr Na’Allah’s lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), adopted their processes and argued their case for and against the suit.

Mr Ekwo said a date for judgement would be communicated to the parties.

“If I am unable to give judgement before vacation, with your consent, I can apply for a fiat from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to deliver the judgement during vacation,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports 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.

In the originating summons, they prayed the court to determine whether having regard to Section 2A, 2 (3) of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003 (otherwise called the Universities Autonomy Act No. 1, 2007), it is lawful and valid for Mr 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 elapse of the last elected members’ four years tenure, which they said was meant to last till 15 July 2025.

The plaintiffs alleged that while the matter was still pending before the court, Mr Na’Allah, on 28 May, 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 5 June, 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.

Mr Ekwo had, on 7 June, ordered Mr Na’Allah to appear before the court on 13 June to show cause why the planned inauguration should not be stopped.

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The VC, through his lawyer, Mr Onoja, in compliance with the order, filed an affidavit on 11 June to show cause.

He equally filed a counter-affidavit and a notice of preliminary objection urging the court to dismiss the suit for lacking merit.

(NAN)