Strike: FG asks court to dismiss ASUU’s appeal

The Court of Appeal Abuja Division will on Friday rule on the fate of the two applications filed by the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), challenging the interim order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) and members of the union requests to go back to work.

The Federal Government asked the Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeal as incompetent.

The court set the date for the judgment after hearing submissions from the counsels to ASUU, Femi Falana and the Federal Government, James Igwe.

When the case was concluded, Falana told the court that he filed the motion on notice for two main remedies, the first for leave to appeal, dated September 28, 2022 and the second, for a stay of execution of the order of the lower court. , dated 23 September 2022.

He told the court they were withdrawing the stay of execution and maintaining the application for leave to appeal the verdict.

According to him, the application for leave is supported by a 17 paragraph affidavit, two pieces of evidence – decision of (NICN) and proposed notice of appeal – and a written address in support of the application.

While noting that the Supreme Court upheld the right of people aggrieved with the judgment of the NICN to appeal to the Court of Appeal, to reject the objection of the Federal Government on the ground that the substantive matter had yet to be determined by the lower court.

In response, Igwe said they filed a counter-affidavit dated October 5, 2022 and supported by seven exhibits and 32 pages of written address, urging the court to dismiss the petitioners’ application.

In a statement from the media office of the minister of labor and employment, sen. Chris Ngige, Igwe argued that the motion for stay of execution of the order of the lower court can no longer be withdrawn as both parties have issues on the matter, urging the court to look into the application and dismiss it show based on the balance of justice.

“We are challenging the entire application. It is incompetent. Your Lordship cannot grant leave in an incompetent application. Both applications offend the rules of the Court. Order 6, Rule 4 is mandatory. We appeal to your Lordships to hold that the entire application which is contrary to the rules of this court is incompetent. The court cannot grant prayers in an incompetent application,” he said.

He maintained that there were no exceptional circumstances for which the court should grant the application of the applicants, more so when they approached the court with dirty hands, including the disobedience of the order of a competent court and refusal to comply with their to file a defense by September 15. , 2022 as ordered by the lower court on September 12, 2022.