ADOKE AND WAZIRI

NMNC eviction: Court orders AGF, SGF to be joined in suit.

An Ikeja High Court on Friday ordered the Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Pius Anyim, to be joined as respondents in a suit challenging the legality of the Nigerian Merchant Navy Corps NMNC.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, in a short ruling delivered on Friday, ordered the duo to be joined in the suit as third and fourth respondents respectively.
The application dated March 11 was brought before the court by the NMNC through its lawyer, Spencer Ohwofa.
Ohwofa had asked the court to join both of them as respondents because they were ``a necessary party’’ to the substantive suit.
The naval corps had instituted a suit against the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, and Yemisi Keffas of the Lagos Liaison Office of the SGF.
Commodore Allen Edema on behalf of 95 others had claimed that the police, acting on the instructions of Keffas, had on Feb. 2, 2010 evicted them from their office at 6, Force Road, Lagos.
The action, according to them, violated their fundamental human rights as enshrined under Sections 34,35,36,40 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution.
In her ruling, Taiwo noted that the AGF and SGF were necessary parties in the suit because Keffas was an employee of the Federal Government.
Taiwo also noted that Keffas had claimed that she evicted the complainants from the said property which belonged to the Federal Government because NMNC was illegal.
The NMNC had claimed that the building was allocated to them by the Federal Government, adding that they were a duly registered body in Nigeria.
Keffas had alleged that the organisation was operating illegally as it was not recognised by any law and the Corporate Affairs Commission.
She further alleged that it had no relationship with the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA).
The case has been adjourned till Sept.15 for the hearing of the substantive suit.