Hearing in the suit filed by the Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola to stop his Plateau State counterpart, Jonah Jang, from parading himself as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum was again stalled on Wednesday as two lawyers fought over the brief of the Registered Trustees of the NGF.
The NGF is the 4th defendant in the matter.
The two lawyers, Chief Awa Kalu, SAN, and Friday Nwosu, filed separate memorandum of appearance for the NGF Trustees and both claimed that they were instructed by the body to represent it in the suit.
The development prevented the court, presided by Justice Peter Affen, from hearing the substantive matter filed by Fashola through his counsel, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
Justice Affen ended up listening to lengthy arguments advanced by Kalu and Nwosu to convince him that each of them was the rightful counsel of the Registered Trustees of the NGF.
But the judge could not decide the matter.
Rather, he ordered that each of the trustees of the NGF should depose to an affidavit to signify who among the two lawyers should represent the body in the suit.
He said, "This is quite unfortunate. Be that as it may, I have carefully considered the two counsels who are at daggers-drawn over who is the rightful counsel to the 4th defendant.
"The Supreme Court held that the best person to decide who represents him is the party itself.
"Counsel/party relationship is a privilege and the court should not be involved in it. I will not decide who has the instruction of 4th defendant to act; it is not right for the court to get involved.
"Each of the trustees of the 4th defendant shall depose to an affidavit indicating his wish as to who is the right counsel to represent them in the matter and the wish of the majority shall prevail."
The lawyer that has a higher number of such affidavits deposed in his favour would be recongnised by the court as the valid counsel for the Registered Trustees of the NGF.
The Constitution of the NGF listed the Registered Trustees of the Forum as Dr. Bukola Saraki, North Central; Dr. Babangida Aliyu, North Central; Mallam Isa Yuguda, North East; Sen. Mamman Ali, North East; Namadi Sambo, North West; Ibrahim Shekarau, North West; Ikedi Ohakim, South East; Martin Elechi, South East; Godswill Akpabio, South South; Emmanuel Uduaghan, South South; Babatunde Fashola, South West; and Segun Oni, South West.
But some of the trustees have left office and as a result are no longer members of the NGF.
The trustees that are still serving are Aliyu, Yuguda, Elechi, Akpabio, Uduaghan and Fashola, the governors of Niger, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Akwa-Ibom, Delta and Lagos states respectively.
Hearing in the suit had also been stalled when the matter initially came up for mention on June 25, 2013 when two lawyers, Tayo Oyetibo and Paul Erokoro, both SANs, had announced their appearance for Jang, the 1st defendant, as well as the sole administrator the Plateau governor appointed for the NGF, Osaro Onaiwu, who is third defendant in the Fashola suit.
Justice Affen adjourned the matter to July 17, 2013, and further ordered that the affidavits must be deposed to by the concerned trustees by that date.
However, there were indications that getting the trustees to depose to the affidavits might throw up another controversy.
The judge noted that the NGF constitution provided for 12 registered trustees, while there are 10 registered trustees on the Forum's certificate of incorporation.
Before adjourning the matter, Jang's lawyer, Oyetibo, had asked for an earlier date, noting that getting the governors to depose to the affidavit should be easy.
But, apparently referring to the crisis in the NGF, the judge jokingly said, "If things were that easy with those people, we will not be here.
"What we want is for them to depose to an affidavit – this time we will do the counting."
The Punch