WHEN ALLOWED:
Ex parte orders are allowed in a situation where getting an
immediate order is urgent and unavoidable and mostly in situations
where damages or injuries inflicted on the property or party
seeking it will not be compensated monetarily. If given, it is
usually temporarily.
The judge who grants must always insist on full hearing, that is
hearing all the parties within a short period of time. The essence
of fair hearing is a fundamental rights enshrined in every
constitutional democracy.
For emphasis, ex parte orders are only allowed where getting an
immediate order is urgent, really really urgent! Why this is so is
because the order can be unfair and violate the due process
requirement of every democratic constitution. Under the due process
doctrine, both parties in every case must have the right to tell
the court their own side of the story.
The President of Nigeria,President Muhammed Buhari anchored his
suspension order on the CJN upon an ex parte order of the Code of
Conduct Tribunal allegedly granted on the 23rd of January, 2019.
Neither the CJN nor his legal team was put on notice before this
order that determined rights and liabilities was given. CAN THIS
PROCEDURE BE REGARDED AS CORRECT? This ex parte order elicited
these ten questions:-
1. I thought that the CCT sat on the 22nd of January and
adjourned its sitting to the 28th of January, 2019? Why was the CJN
not put on notice for this 23rd of January proceedings in the
absence of any extreme urgency that warranted the hearing of the ex
parte application?
2. What was this extreme urgency in the matter of the trial of
the CJN that warranted this ex parte application and relief, more
so, when the said application and relief is to achieve the same
purpose the trial sought to accomplish?
3. Can one really use ex parte application in law to determine
the rights and liabilities of a citizen, most importantly that of a
Chief Justice of Nigeria without putting him on notice?
4. Is this ex parte order liable to be set aside as is known in
all rules of court? Most importantly what is the duration of this
ex parte order since every ex parte order has a life span?
5. Is there any provision in the constitution, Code of Conduct
Bureau Act or any other rules of court used by the CCT that allows
the CCT to use ex parte order to suspend, remove or punish any
public officer who is facing trial before it without going through
the entire trial process as prescribed by the Act?
6. Can this ex parte be valid when before it was granted the
jurisdiction of the CCT has been challenged by the legal team of
the CJN and which issue has not be determined by the same court as
settled by plethora of Supreme Court authorities known as
precedents?
7. Before this ex parte was granted, I thought there were
several injunctive orders granted by superior courts of record
restraining the CCT from going ahead with the hearing of the case
involving the CJN before the CCT?
8. This ex parte was allegedly obtained on the 23rd of January,
2019 why was there no earlier report of its being granted by the
court until the evening of 25th of January, 2019 when the President
who was addressing the press exhibited the purported order signed
by two out of the three members of the Tribunal?
9. Was this ex parte order obtained and dated the 23rd of
January, 2019 to avoid a situation where it will be said that the
order is illegal since the Court of Appeal has been seised of the
matter since 24th of January and even made an interim order staying
proceedings at the CCT? By dating it 23rd of January, 2019, CCT
will likely absolve itself of any accusation of disobeying the
order of the Court of Appeal! Clever move!
10. Under what law was the CJN, a head of another arm of
government suspended by the President? Could it be under the 1999
constitution, or under the Code of Conduct Bureau Act, or under
Interpretation Act, or under the Administration of Criminal Justice
Act or perhaps under the Various Executive Orders signed before now
by the President? The country is hungry to know MR PRESIDENT.
11. MORE QUESTIONS AND WHEN THE USE OF EX PARTE IS NOT ALLOWED
LATER.
By Monday O. Ubani Esq Legal Practictioner.