Court turns down Sanusi’s application

Hope of early return to office by the suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, was dashed on Wednesday when an Abuja Federal High Court refused an ex parte motion he filed in a bid to set aside his suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The court instead ordered that the President should be put on notice, and fixed March 12 for both sides to argue the motion.

In the motion he filed on February 24, the CBN governor asked the court to reinstate him, and also make an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the President, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Inspector-General of Police from stopping or preventing him from performing the functions of his office and enjoying in full, the statutory powers and privileges attached to the office.

While urging the court to urgently grant the motion, Sanusi had argued that any delay might cause irreparable and serious damage and mischief on him in the exercise of his statutory duties as the CBN governor.

However, Justice Gabriel Kolawole on Wednesday, directed Sanusi to put the defendants on notice to enable them appear before the court to explain why the application should not be granted.

Justice Kolawole said he felt hesitant and constrained to grant Sanusi’s ex parte motion.

He explained that it was unsafe to grant far reaching interim orders, which have all the attributes of a mandatory injunction without giving the defendants a hearing.

Also, according to the judge, once the defendants have been served with the originating summons and motion on notice, the court would need to determine whether, considering the Third Alteration Act No. 20 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, the Federal High Court has the jurisdiction to entertain the suit or not.

The court said it would rather review Sanusi’s ex parte motion and as a result, directed that the motion be served on Jonathan and the other defendants.

Justice Kolawole thereafter fixed March 12 to hear the application.

Should the court determine that it has the jurisdiction to hear the suit, it could declare the suspension unlawful, and order that the plaintiff be returned to perform his duties as the CBN governor.

In the event that the tenure has elapsed, the court could also order the defendants to pay the plaintiff’s remunerations and allowances, if the suspension involved the stoppage of remunerations and allowances.

Jonathan, during a Presidential Media Chat on Monday, had said that Sanusi was still the governor of the CBN, and that he could only revert to the Senate if he intended to sack him completely.

Jonathan also denied Sanusi’s claim that the suspension was connected to his disclosures concerning the alleged $20bn missing funds from the NNPC.

The President also hinted at a possible prosecution of the CBN governor, in the event that ongoing investigations established a clear case of fraud against him.

Sanusi had earlier on Friday 21st February 2014 obtained an order of a Lagos Federal High Court, which restrained the State Security Service, the IGP and the AGF from arresting him.

IHUOMA CHIEDOZIE