Ise-Oluwa Ige and Ikechukwu Nnochiri
21 November 2008
A Federal high court sitting in Abuja yesterday fixed January 28, next year for ruling on a request by the Federal Government to stay proceedings in a suit by eight indigenes of Bakassi Local Government challenging the ceding of an oil-rich enclave called Bakassi peninsular to Cameroon.
The trial high court judge, Justice Muhammed Garba Umar fixed the date after listening to arguments from the opposing sides in the case.
The ruling will determine whether or not trial would go on in the matter or not until determination of the constitutional issue submitted to the Court of Appeal for determination.
It would be recalled that the high court had granted an interim order restraining the Federal Government from going ahead with the cession of Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroon as ordered by the International Court of Justice some years back.
The injunction came few days to the date fixed for the hand-over.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Mike Andoakaa (SAN) had said that the order granted by the judge was a bad one which could not be respected.
Notwithstanding the fact that he vowed not to obey the order, he said he would not even appeal it.
But days after, he took the ruling of the trial high court to the Appeal Court for the purpose of reversing it.
He also asked the appellate court to pronounce on a sole constitutional issue touching on whether or not a trial local high court has powers to review the judgment of an International Court of Justice.
The matter before the Court of Appeal is yet to be heard.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
