The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, in Abuja, has declined to vacate an order which restricted the anti-hunger protesters in the FCT to Moshood Abiola Stadium known as the National Stadium for staging protests.
Instead, the vacation court on Wednesday opted to return the case file to the Chief Judge of the High Court for re-assignment to the regular Court for adjudication.
The suit was instituted by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike against the #Endbadgovernace led by Omoyele Sowore and others.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, Justice Sylvanus Oriji had requested explanations from counsel to the FCT minister, George Ibrahim whether the suit still had life in view of the fact that the August 1st to 10th protest had come and gone.
The counsel in his explanation drew the attention of the Judge to a letter written to the FCT minister by the protesters, where they asserted that the protest might last longer than August 10.
He also drew the attention of the court to fresh processes filed by Omoyele Sowore and three others where he alleged that they were still in the mood for another round of protest.
Although Justice Oriji maintained that the order he issued on July 31 in an ex-parte application was for the August 1st to 10th protest, the FCT minister said that it would be in the interest of peace for the order to last till the hearing and determination of his motion on notice.
The lawyer informed the court that Sowore and the other three defendants through their lawyer, Inibehe Effiong served him four different voluminous processes on September 2 and that the processes were contentious. He requested an adjournment to enable him to read the processes and respond appropriately.
However, counsel to Sowore and three others, Inibehe Effiong did not object to the adjournment request but applied that the restraining order against his clients be discharged. Effiong argued that the life span of the restriction order had lapsed since August 10.
Justice Oriji after carefully listening to the two lawyers reminded them that the FCT Court vacation would terminate on September 13 while normal court sitting would commence on September, he would not be able to fully determine the matter in the remaining few days.
The Judge held that the proper thing in the circumstances was to refer the case file to the Chief Judge to be reassigned to any of the normal courts.
He consequently ordered that the case file be made available to the Chief judge for the matter to be heard after vacation.
