Court Strikes Out All Cases On UNILAG Crisis

The National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos has
struck out two cases in respect of the crisis rocking the
University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Justice Jeremiah Essien struck out the suits on Tuesday
following the formal withdrawal of the applications filed by
lawyers in relation to the crisis.

One of the suits was filed by Professor Olutoyin Ogundipe to
challenge his removal as the vice-chancellor by the Governing
Council under the chairmanship of Dr. Wale Babalakin – a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

The other suit was filed by the Senate of the university to
challenge Professor Ogundipe’s removal and his replacement with
Professor Theophilus Soyombo by the governing council.

In the first case, Professor Ogundipe’s lawyers, Tayo Oyetibo
(SAN), and Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), told the court that their
client had filed a notice of discontinuance.

The lawyers also drew the attention of the court to certain news
reports in the media which falsely indicated that the court sat on
Friday last week and refused an ex-parte application filed by
Professor Ogundipe.

Justice Essien dismissed the news and said that since he did not
sit on the case formally, such a report must be part of the fake
news menace currently plaguing the nation.

Professor Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), who represented the university’s
Senate, also applied for the withdrawal of the suit filed by the
Senate.

There was no objection to the withdrawal of both suits by Mr
Tola Oshobi (SAN), who represented Dr Babalakin in both cases.

Following the applications for withdrawal, Justice Essien struck
out the suits.

He encouraged authorities of the institution to resolve the
raging controversy amicably, stressing that such was not good for
the image of a university.

The judge also said he was glad that the parties elected to
withdraw the suit, thereby saving him from having to make
pronouncements.

Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/08/26/court-strikes-out-all-cases-on-unilag-crisis/

Malami  in a statement issued by his  Special Assistant
on Media, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu,
 on Tuesday 25th August 2020 ,  said he requires no
additional powers to effectively regulate agencies under his
supervision. 

The statement read: “it is trite to say that by virtue of the
extant laws of the land as well as rules and legislations governing
the conduct of the governmental operations, the Attorney-General of
the Federation has
indisputable statutory powers to regulte the operations of the
commissions without recourse to any additional legislations.

“Section 43 of the EFCC Act has made it abundantly clear that
“the Attorney General of the Federation may make rules or
regulations with respect to the  exercise of any of the
duties, functions or powers of the      Commission
under this Act”.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice believes in the doctrines of
separation of powers as an epitome character of  the
democratic administration and could
not therefore meddle into the affairs of legislature for
megalomaniac sake”.

“It is a global practice in democratic societies that the
legislature may at their discretion and as deem fit, spearhead the
amendment of existing legislations in order to accommodate certain
exigencies   occasioned by contemporary realities and the
need to improve performance to achieve best practices without any
prompting from external organs of the government.

“At the moment, the priority of the Office of the
Attorney-General of
the Federation and Minister of Justice is to see to the effective
execution of its statutory mandates of supervising all the
parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Justice in a way that
make them function in the best interest of the general public,
which constitutional responsibility  he is engaged by
President Muhammadu Buhari to discharge”.

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