NBA crisis: Court threatens to strike out suit

A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, on Monday, threatened to strike out a suit filed before it to challenge the May 9, 2012 election of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, Lagos if parties once again fail to file all necessary papers, giving them seven days to regularise all documentation.Justice Opeyemi Oke gave this order at the resumed hearing of the matter while giving ruling on the suit.A chairmanship candidate in the election, Mr Yinka Farounbi, had challenged the conduct of the election, seeking the interpretation of the by-laws of the association as related to its election.At the earlier hearings of the suit on May 16 and 24, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, who first handled the matter, had restrained the electoral committee from swearing in the officers-elect pending the determination of the suit before her.The matter was however reassigned to Justice Oke and at the resumed hearing of the case on May 30, the court adjourned till June 11 to enable all court processes to be served and replied to and also to enable the eighth defendant reply to all addresses on point of law.However, on Monday, Mr Sunday Agumemo, counsel for the eighth defendant, Memuna Esegine, told the court that he had just filed a fresh preliminary objection to the motion on notice of the claimant and sought to withdraw the initial preliminary objection on the jurisdiction of the court.Agumemo argued in the new application that the claimant ought to have brought the suit through a writ of summon and not through an originating summon.Counsel for the claimant, Mr A.A. Adewunmi, confirmed receiving the application on Monday but said he would need time to study it and respond to it appropriately.Commenting on the new application, Justice Oke reminded all the parties in the suit against doing anything that would lengthen the dispensation of justice in the matter.'It is the way you lay your bed that you will lie on it. If you are the applicant and you are not ready that day, I will strike out the case and if you are one of the defendants and you are not ready, it means you are not for the case,' Justice Oke stated, before adjourning till June 19, 2012.
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