A federal high court in Abuja has ordered Nkemakolam Ukandu, the national welfare secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), to pay N50 million each to John Tsoho, chief judge of the federal high court, and Peter Lifu, another judge of the court, after striking out his suit against them.
Salim Ibrahim, presiding judge, made the order on Monday
after dismissing the suit for lack of diligent prosecution. The judge directed
Ukandu to pay the N100 million costs within 14 days.
The costs followed an oral application by J.U.K. Igwe,
counsel to Tsoho and Lifu.
“Based on the Provision of Order 19 (1) of the Rules of this
honourable court 2019, the court hereby makes an order striking out this suit
for lack of diligent prosecution,” the judge ruled.
“It is further ordered that the plaintiff is to pay the sum
of fifty (50) million naira each to the 2nd and 3rd defendants within 14 days
from the date of this order.”
Ukandu had sued the National Judicial Council (NJC), Tsoho
and Lifu over allegations of bias and disobedience to a court order.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1165/2026, he sought an order
compelling the NJC to investigate allegations of corruption, abuse of judicial
powers and bias against Tsoho and Lifu.
The plaintiff and his lawyer, however, failed to appear
before the court.
At the previous hearing on June 30, the judge warned that
the suit would be struck out if Ukandu or his counsel failed to attend the
proceedings again.
The suit arose from the leadership dispute within the ADC.
Ukandu had challenged Tsoho’s decision to reassign a suit
filed by Nafiu Bala, an aggrieved ADC chieftain, from Emeka Nwite, a judge of
the federal high court, to Lifu.
He argued that the transfer violated an earlier order of the
supreme court, which remitted the case to Nwite for the determination of
pending applications challenging the jurisdiction of the federal high court.
According to him, Nwite had adjourned proceedings indefinitely after lawyers
disputed an application seeking the reassignment of the case.
Ukandu also alleged that Lifu proceeded with the matter
despite the subsisting orders and sought an injunction restraining him from
hearing the leadership dispute pending the determination of his petition before
the NJC. He further asked the court to direct Lifu to recuse himself from the
case.
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