NBA 2016 election gets judicial go ahead
An Abuja Federal Capital Territory High Court has struck out court a legal action instituted by a Lagos lawyer John Unachukwu, challenging the conduct of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) 2016 general election, thereby clearing the coast for the poll to elect new national officers for lawyers in the country.
Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, of the Abuja court who struck out the suit said that the plaintiff, Unachukwu lacked the locus standi to institute the action against the NBA on the ground of uncertainties in his names and documents he placed before the court。
Justice Adeniyi in the judgment that lasted over two hours, upheld the argument of the NBA that the plaintiff, was not the person disqualified by its electoral committee from contesting for the office of the National Publicity Secretary。
The court held that the plaintiff who in some documents claimed to be John Unachukwu Austin, John Echezona Unachukwu cannot be the same person by a name Unachukwu John Austin in the face of the law。
Justice Adeniyi said that the three names John Echezona Unachukwu, John Unachukwu Austin, and Unachukwu John Austin were radically different from one another and that one does not need an expert in name to differentiate among the three names。
The court held that since the documents placed before the court by the plaintiffs and those placed before the court by the NBA contradicted themselves, the court will not engage in speculation as to whether the same person bears the three names。
To worsen his case，the court held that the plaintiff who is a lawyer by profession and a judicial editor of the Nation Newspapers, did not dispose to affidavit to show the linkage among the three names in the documents the court considered。
By the failure to depose to affidavit to prove that he is the bearer of the three names, the court said that the plaintiff has not shown to the court that he was the one disqualified by the electoral committee of the NBA from contesting in the 2016 general election and therefore has no justifiable reason to institute the legal action against the NBA。
The plaintiff, John Echezona Unachukwu had dragged the NBA and five others before the Abuja High Court challenging his disqualification from contesting the NBA election insisting that his disqualification was unwarranted and has no justification。
Other defendants in the suit are: NBA President Augustine Alegeh SAN, Electoral Committee Chairman Ken Mozia SAN, Grace Infotech Limited, Joe-Kyari Gadzama SAN and Abubakar Mahmoud SAN who are the two presidential aspirants in the NBA election.
In the suit argued by his counsel, Chukwuma Ekomaro SAN，the plaintiff had also challenged the NBA from using the internet voting for the election in place of the electronic voting， claiming that there was no sufficient technology across the country to support the internet voting.
But Justice Adeniyi said “it is appropriate to point out that the deposition of the plaintiff is challenging and indeed targeted at the conduct of the NBA 2016 general election and it is a fact that three different names have been churned out from the documents placed before the court and the dilemma is whether the three different names belong to one and only person。＂
‘Going by the Supreme Court decisions in the previous matters of this nature，the law is that John Echezona Unachukwu, John Unachukwu Austin and Unachukwu John Austin cannot be said to be the same person without appropriate deposition to clear the ambiguity in the three different names.＂
＂From my own point of view, the three names are radically different from each other and I do not need an expert in names to establish this fact more so when the documents placed before the court by the parties contradict themselves on the names。This court will not engage in speculation and will also not encourage the use of fictitious names to achieve a desire。＂
Justice Adeniyi then warned that lawyers as the conscience of the nation，must learn how to conduct their affairs with every sense of diligence decency and nobility so that the larger society will learn from them.