A High Court of Nasarawa State has restored the judgment nullifying the congress of the National Youths Council of Nigeria (NYCN) which produced Comrade Saraigbe Sukubo as the group’s National President.
Justice Abdullahi Ozegya, in a ruling on Friday, reversed the order made by the court on January 23, 2020, which set aside an earlier consent judgment of December 11, 2019, on the grounds that the order was obtained by fraud.
The court had, in the December 11, 2019 consent judgment by Justice Offo Haruna in suit No: NSD/MG104/18, voided the congresses held by a faction of the NYCN in Abuja, Gombe and Port-Harcourt for being unlawful, having been conducted in violation of a subsisting court order.
Minister of Sports and Youth Development had been barred from according to any recognition to Sukubo while Sukubo was also stopped by the court from parading himself as NYCN President or performing any function relating to the council.
Two of the parties to the consent judgment – Comrades Murtala Garba and Abdulrahman Agboola returned to the court and obtained the January 23, 2020 order, without the knowledge of the Incorporated Trustees of Centre for Advocacy and Development in Africa (CADA) that (a party to the consent judgment.)
The ruling by Justice Ozegya on Friday was on a motion by the Incorporated Trustees of CADA, marked: NSD/MG104M2/2020, urging the court to set aside the January 23, 2020 order.
Justice Ozegya, in the ruling, granted the relief by the Incorporated Trustees of CADA on the grounds that the order was obtained by Garba and Agboola by misleading the court.
The judge noted that not only was proper service not effected on the plaintiff/applicant (the Incorporated Trustees of CADA), Garba and Agboola withheld material facts from the court.
Justice Ozegya further held that the January 23, 2020 order was granted by the court without jurisdiction because the plaintiff/applicant was denied a fair hearing.
The judge proceeded to set aside the proceedings of the court of January 23, 2020.
