Attempt by the Minister of Transportations, Rotimi Ameachi to speedily get the court to strike out an unlawful contract award suit suffered setback on Monday as the vacation judge of the Federal High Court Abuja justice Ahmed Mohammed declined his application and returned the case file to the regular Court for hearing of his preliminary objection.
The court declined the defendants’ request to adjourn the matter to Thursday, April 28 for hearing on the preliminary objection on the ground that the Easter vacation ends today, April 25.
At the resumed sitting the registrar of the court had read an affidavit of non-service by the court bailiff , stating that the plaintiff counsel could not be reached for notice of service.
The court also observed that it is in receipt of the letter from the plaintiff notifying it that the chamber would be on Easter vacation and would not be available to appear on the matter during the Easter vacations.
However, the Counsel to the defendants argued that the plaintiff counsel had never wanted the matter referred to the vacation judge to be disposed off, adding that the preliminary objection is challenging the court jurisdiction.
He therefore requested the court for the Plaintiff counsel to be re-served through their email and text messages.
In a ruling , Justice Mohammed ruled that since the matter was assigned as a vacation suit it is bound by the law and would not granted the request to adjourn the matter beyond April 25 when the vacation end.
Consequently, the judge ordered that the application and case file be returned to Court 6 for continuation of the suit.
The case was filed by a Civil society Organization, the Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) while the defendants are Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Attorney-General of the Federation, and the BPP over irregularities in the award of the sensitive contract.