Court Refuses Sanusi’s Application for Reinstatement

Court Refuses Sanusi’s Application for Reinstatement

Mallam  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

By Tobi Soniyi in Abuja  

A Federal High Court in Abuja Wednesday refused an application
byMallam  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to be reinstated as the central bank
governor.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole refused the ex parte motion brought before it
by Sanusi on the grounds that it would be unfair to grant such an
application without affording the respondents a hearing.

Sanusi had filed the application on Monday asking the court to make an
order of interlocutory injunction restraining the defendants from
obstructing, disturbing,

stopping or preventing him in any manner whatsoever, from performing
the functions as the governor of the CBN and enjoying in full, the
statutory powers and privileges attached to the office.

Urging the court to expeditiously grant his interlocutory application,
he maintained that any delay might cause irreparable and serious damage
and mischief on him in the exercise of his statutory duties as the CBN
governor.

But Justice Gabriel Kolawole in refusing the application said he was of
the view that the court had not only the judicial powers to declare the
suspension unlawful, but to order that the plaintiff be returned to
perform his duties as the governor of the CBN.

He also said the court could also, even where the tenure had lapsed
order the defendants to pay the plaintiff such remunerations and
allowances on the basis that the plaintiff's suspension also carried
with it the stoppage of his remuneration and allowances.

According to the trial judge, it is unsafe, judicially speaking, to
embark on far-reaching interim orders, which have all the attributes of a
mandatory injunction without according the defendants a hearing.

Pondering on the reliefs sought, the trial judge said he felt hesitant
and constrained to grant the plaintiff’s motion ex parte.

The judge said another issue he would like to raise when the defendants
have been duly served with the originating summons and motion on notice
was whether in the light of the third alteration Act number 20 of the
Constitution of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, whether the Federal High
Court still has the jurisdiction to entertain issues dealing with
employment, notwithstanding the questions the plaintiff had set down for
determination in his originating summons.

In the light of the views expressed and the analysis, the court refused
the plaintiff’s motion ex parte and directed that the motion be served
on the defendants.

The judge further ordered the plaintiff to effect service of the
originating summons on the defendants together with the motion on
notice.

The court then adjourned the matter to March 12, 2014.