Photo: Mrs Pauline Tallen, Women Affairs Minister
The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has prayed a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, to issue an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen, from ever holding public office again in Nigeria and urged her to resign from office forthwith.
The umbrella body of lawyers in the country made this known in a suit which it instituted against Tallen over alleged contemptuous comments.
The minister allegedly made the comments while reacting to the judgment of a court which had nullified the election of Mrs A’isha Binani, the female governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adamawa State.
The judgment was in a suit filed by by Adamawa governorship aspirant and former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu against the All Progressives Congress, APC,.candidate.
Mrs Tallen had in a speech she delivered on October 15, on the sidelines of the First Global Reunion and Annual General Meeting of the Federal Government Girls’ College, Bida Old Girls Association in Abuja. described the October 14 decision of the Federal High Court as a “kangaroo judgment.”
“The ruling that sacked Aishatu Binani, the only female governorship candidate in the country is a kangaroo judgment that should be rejected by well-meaning Nigerians.
“The court is declaring that the party has no candidate. This is unacceptable. It is like a kangaroo judgment, but we will not give up,” Tallen was quoted as saying.
The NBA is of the view that Tallen’s comments were contemptuous and disrespectful to the court, stressing that it amounted to inciting citizens to disobey the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction.
It, therefore, prayed the court to declare that Tallen’s comments as “unconstitutional, careless, reckless, disparaging, a call to disobey the judgment of court and therefore, contemptuous of the Federal High Court of Nigeria.”
NBA also urged the court to “Declare that by virtue of the aforesaid statement of the defendant referring to the judgment of court as ‘kangaroo’, the defendant is thereby unfit to hold or continue to hold the office of the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development of the Federal Government of Nigeria, or any public office of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The NBA also wants the court to, “Order the defendant to publish a personally signed apology letter to Nigerians and the Judiciary on a full page of two national dailies.
It also prayed the court to grant, “An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from holding any public office in Nigeria by reason of her conduct complained of unless she purges herself of the ignoble conduct by publishing a written apology which must be published in each of the dailies”
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