Emefiele Drops His Lawsuit Against INEC And AGF 

Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), withdrew his lawsuit against INEC and the Attorney-General of the Federation on Monday.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

Emefiele informed Justice Ahmed Mohammed through his attorney, S.T. Maliki, that a notice of discontinuance had been filed and served on the defendants in the case.

The case was going to be addressed, Maliki, who represented Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, said Emefiele had directed them to abandon the suit.

“Pursuant to the instruction of the plaintiff (Emefiele), we filed a notice of discontinuance dated and filed May16, 2022

“And the said notice of discontinuance was served on all the defendants on that said date of May 16, 2022, which proof of service is before your lordship,” Maliki said.

Only the 4th and 5th defendants filed a rebuttal affidavit in answer to the plaintiff’s modified originating summons after the notice of withdrawal was served on them, according to the lawyer.

Citing Order 50 of the rules of this court, he asked the court to dismiss the claim and issue an order striking it out since the parties had not combined the issues in the cases.

Even though the 4th defendant’s counsel, John Aikpokpo-Martins, disputed Emefiele’s decision to drop the case, he requested the court to dismiss the case with a N1.5 million fee.

The withdrawal notice was not objected to by the lawyers for the second and third defendants, Chris Nevo and T. J. Adi, respectively.

Nevo requested a N1 million cost against Emefiele from the court.

Emefiele had the right to file the withdrawal notification, according to Justice Mohammed.

He declared the discontinuance notice to be legitimate and ordered it to be dismissed.

Emefiele had petitioned the court through his lawyer, Ozekhome, according to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) on May 9.

He had filed an ex-parte application with the court, asking for the court’s opinion on whether he may run for president in 2023 while still serving as governor of CBN.

He had asked the court to issue an injunction preventing the federal government from removing him from office because of his presidential ambitions, pending the outcome of the substantive case.

He also asked the court to prevent the INEC from taking any action against him in his attempt to run for president using his post as a platform.

The pleas were made in an ex-parte application filed by the CBN governor’s counsel on May 9, requesting an order of preservation of the status quo ante bellum until the hearing and resolution of the substantive litigation.

In the lawsuit, Emefiele named the INEC and the AGF as the first and second defendants, respectively.

However, on May 12, Justice Mohammed added the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and two additional attorneys as third, fourth, and fifth defendants, respectively, for themselves and on behalf of members of Save Nigeria, Our Fatherland.