The Federal High Court in Abuja has issued a temporary order halting the implementation of the scrapping of the Higher National Diploma (HND) in Pharmaceutical Technology by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN).
Justice Peter Lifu ordered the NBTE and PCN to put their decision against HND on Pharmaceutical Technology on hold until a legal action instituted against them by six aggrieved Nigerians is fully determined.
The judge said that since the NBTE and PCN have become aware of the pendency of the suit against them and even joined issues with those who filed a case against them, they should maintain status quo till the suit is fully determined.
Specifically, Justice Lifu ordered that no step must be taken by any of the parties on the subject matter until he has taken final decision on the dispute.
The judge had earlier ordered the NBTE and PCN to appear before him and explain the rationale behind the move to scrap the award of Higher National Diploma (HND) Pharmaceutical Technology in all institutions in Nigeria.
He ordered them to appear before him for their defense but the matter could not proceed due to non completion of service of processes filed.
However, the six plaintiffs through their lawyer, Adewunmi Adebayo moved an ex-parte application praying the court for permission to join the Minister of Education in the suit.
The plaintiffs told the court that their decision to join the Education Minister was informed by the fact that the Ministerial meeting where the resolution to scrap the HND Certificate in Pharmaceutical Technology was convened at his instance. After taking arguments of the lawyer, Justice Lifu fixed September 11 for ruling in the application.
The judge said that pending the resolution of the grievances of the plaintiffs, nothing must but be done in the matter so as not to undermine the authority of the court and render the case nugatory.
