The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Staff Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Abuja on Wednesday vowed to challenge in the Court of Appeal, the judgment of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court which invalidated the election of officers of the society.
It was gathered that a group of retired NNPC Staff led by Agada Michael Agbo and Egahson Shehu Salifu had dragged the Cooperative officers before the FCT High Court challenging the last year’s election that produced them.
The plaintiffs claimed that section 20 of the Bye-Law of the Cooperative society was violated by adopting an online voting system as against the balloting or electronic voting stipulated by the law.
Plaintiff further challenged the election on the grounds that a Registrar who did not supervise the election performed the inauguration of the elected officials contrary to the provisions of the law.
Delivering Judgement, Justice Agbaza on Wednesday nullified the election of the Cooperative officers elected in June last year on the grounds that the constitution of the cooperative society was not followed.
Agbaza agreed that section 20 of the Bye-Law of the Cooperative society was circumvented by adopting the online system as against the Balloting required by law.
The judge, therefore, nullified the election and ordered that an Electoral Committee be put in place to conduct a fresh election within 90 days.
The court also declined to grant the N100 million compensatory damages demanded by the plaintiffs while instituting the court action.
However, Counsel to the leadership of the Society, Mr Ibrahim Idris told Judiciary reporters at the High Court that the veracity of the judgment delivered by Justice Charles Agbaza will be tested at the Appellate Court.
The counsel after a brief meeting with the Cooperative Society leaders said the Notice of Appeal to challenge the High Court decision will be filed in the next 48 hours.
He predicated the decision to go on appeal on the grounds that the trial court ought not to have dabbled into the internal and domestic affairs of the Cooperative Society.
The Counsel insisted that the issue of the Cooperative Society election to select management officers was purely a domestic affair of the members of the society and that the court lacked requisite jurisdiction to have delved into the matter.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com