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Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the suit seeking to stop the House of Representatives from investigating the alleged attacks on some students of Madonna University on February 3, 2015, for lacking in merit.
Two students of the school, Stanley Okoye (23), who was a final year Civil Engineering student and Ga-Lim Aondofa Lord, were allegedly abducted by the Chief Security Officer of the university, Okey Ogbonna, and the Dean of Student Affairs, Rev. Fr. Isaac Nginga, a Catholic Priest, and others now at large and taken to a secluded area where they were tortured, brutalised and dehumanised.
In dismissing the plaintiff’s suit, the court held that the subject matter for litigation falls within the powers of the National Assembly and, therefore, the court lacks the jurisdiction to interfere in the legislative duty of the defendants based on the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs.
Acting on a petition, the House of Representatives, through its Committee on Public Petition, invited the founder of Madonna University, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Edeh, Rev. Fr. Francis Nwachukwu, Rev. Fr. Francis Nginga and Mr. Ogbonna Okey to appear before it with respect to the incident.
Rather than appear before the House Committee on Public Petition, the plaintiffs approached the Federal High Court with a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1338/2018 to stop their appearance before the Committee.
The suit filed by their counsel, Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), listed the House of Representatives and its Committee on Public Petitions as defendants.
In her judgment, Justice Ojukwu specifically held that the National Assembly is empowered by section 88 (2) (a) and (b) of the 1999 constitution to “make laws and expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursements or administration of funds appropriated by it.”
She further held that section 89 (1) (a) (b) of the 1999 constitution gives the National Assembly investigatory powers for the purpose of procuring written or oral, direct or circumstantial evidence from all persons and on any issue that is of national and public interest.
The court further held that the plaintiffs did not place sufficient materials before the court to show that the subject matter is pending before any court, as the documents submitted to the courts are incomplete documents.
Before her judgment, the court dismissed the motion on notice brought by the defendants for an enlargement of time to file a memorandum of conditional appearance and counter affidavit.
The said motion on notice dated March 13, 2019, was filed by Charles Yoila of the Directorate of Legal Services, National Assembly Legal Services.
Ojukwu who dismissed the motion said it was an attempt by the applicants to arrest the judgment of the court.
Though Okoye and Aondofa survived the ordeal through divine intervention, they suffered various life threatening injuries as a result of the beastly incident.
