By Ubong Sampson
The President of African Bar Association, Hannibal Uwaifo has suggested law reforms that will spell grave penalties to offenders as solution to the reckless grants of ex parte orders and injunctions by judges.
Reacting to recent events that led to the summon of some state chief judges by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Uwaifo said the Nigerian judiciary must not sit back and watch this practice keep being encouraged.
Stressing the need for law reforms that he said should find a way of tying the hands of the judges in granting exparte order, Uwaifo noted that the reform must agree and spell out clearly the type of situations that a judge should grant such order and it must be in a case of total helplessness, while grave penalties are spelt for where it is found out that the applicant swore falsely to the affidavit accompanying the application.
“With all respect to that office, this must be made to include even the president because what is happening now can destroy the country. It once threw the country into unavoidable crisis in 1993 during the infamous ABN activities. We are aware of all these and we are dancing towards the same angle again.
“This is not about which political parties are involved, the issue is that these orders are conflicting, wrong and scandalous.
“Interim injunctions are granted on cases and they end up serving permanently and taking the place of judgement because nothing else is heard or done about the case after the injunction is granted and served. This is why we need law reforms”, he added.
Also reacting, Goddy Uwazurike, a legal practitioner said it is sad that people now approach the court with only an affidavit to get an ex parte order.
In his suggestion, Uwazurike said signing an undertaking to pay dearly when it is proven that the ex parte was given on false claims, should be a compulsory condition for granting such order.
“It is sad that in today’s judiciary, we have judges sitting at different locations to dish out exparte on one case. This is wrong. Anambra’s case is scandelous. Let me put it bluntly, ex parte order should not be easily give. It should be in an extreme case and such must be proven to be extreme. An Abuja high court judge was dismissed for wrongly giving exparte order in 2003 during Obasanjo’s reign. That is how serious this issue should be”, he added.
In his reaction, another legal practitioner, Olasupo Ojo advised the courts and presiding judges to be careful, as people and institutions in present times are abusing the exparte and using same for their personal desires. He mentioned the EFCC as one of such institutions.
“EFCC will go to court behind you and obtain an ex parte order to detain you for a long time and you won’t know. And you will get to court to apply for bail, only for you to be shown an order that was granted for your detention. This order is very powerful. It has saved lives and has destroyed lives too, so the courts need to be very careful”, Ojo added.
Recall that the CJN had earlier summoned the chief judges of six states over conflicting decisions given by courts of coordinate jurisdiction.
Three conflicting court decisions from courts of coordinate jurisdiction had emerged over the leadership tussle rocking the Peoples Democratic Party.
While a High Court in Rivers State had made an interim injunction restraining Uche Secondus from parading himself as the National Chairman of the PDP on August 24, Justice Nusirat Umar of the Kebbi State High Court made an interim order returning Secondus to his position as the National Chairman on August 26. Following the Kebbi court’s decision, a High Court sitting in Cross Rivers State made an interim order on August 27, restraining Secondus from resuming as the PDP Chairman.
In a similar vein, the courts in Jigawa, Anambra, and Imo States had also given conflicting decisions regarding the governorship candidature of the All Progressives Grand Alliance for the Anambra State election billed for November 6, 2021.
On July 16, the Independent National Electoral Commission had listed Chukwuma Umeoji as the candidate of APGA for the election in the state.
The listing of Umeoji was based on a court order of June 28 by a High Court in Jigawa. Another High Court sitting in Anambra on July 18 had ordered INEC to include the name of Charles Soludo as APGA candidate for the election. Following that, the High Court in Imo State declared Umeoji as the APGA candidate for the election.
