A Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin, today struck out the application by Dare Akogun challenging the outcome of the 2024 election of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The court dismissed the case for being incompetent.
Akogun filed the application before the appellate court in a bid to upturn the election that produced the incumbent Chairman of the union, Abdullateef ‘Lanre Ahmed, for a second term of office.
Justice Abdu Dogo led the appeal court panel to deliver the ruling during the court’s virtual sitting on Wednesday.
Defendants in the case included state NUJ Chairman, ‘Lanre Ahmed; former NUJ National President, Christopher Isiguzo; NUJ National Secretary, Achike Jude; former NUJ Zone ‘D’ Vice President, Christopher Atsaka; Chairman, Kwara NUJ Credential Committee, Abdulhamid Funsho Alaiye; Kwara NUJ Credential Committee Secretary, Sulyman Bolaji Gobir, and NUJ National Secretariat.
Recall that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NCIN) sitting in Ibadan struck out similar application by Dare Akogun to join in the suit filed by Babajide Fadeyi of Federation Information Chapel to challenge his disqualification as a Vice Chairmanship aspirant from the state NUJ triennial conference also known as election.
The lower court dismissed the entire suit and awarded N100,000 each against the litigant for wasting the court time following his application to withdraw the substantive suit.
According to the court, the sum of N100,000 awarded against Fadeyi was to be paid to each of the seven defendants in the suit, totaling N700,000.
