Deborah Onyofufeke
Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed, of the Federal High Court Abuja, on Monday, declined the request by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, to fast track to April 28, Thursday, this week, the hearing of a suit brought against him on the award of contract for Cargo tracking

The request was declined by the court on the grounds that the Easter vacation ends today, April 25, hence, the court can no longer lawfully sit as an Easter vacation court to rule over the matter.

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The Judge returned the case file to the regular Court for a hearing on the preliminary objection to granting Thursday or Friday this week for a compulsory hearing of the suit

In today’s sitting, the registrar of the court had read an affidavit of non-service by the court bailiff, stating that the plaintiff’s counsel could not be reached for notice of service.

The court also observed that It is in receipt of the letter from the plaintiff notifying it that the chamber would be on Easter vacation and would not be available to appear on the matter during the Easter vacation.

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Although, Counsel to the defendants argued that the plaintiff’s counsel had never wanted the matter referred to the vacation judge to be disposed of the preliminary objection challenged the court’s jurisdiction and therefore requested the court for counsel to be reserved through their email and through text messages.

The court held that since the matter was assigned as a vacation suite, he was bound by the law and did not have the mandate to grant the request to adjourn the matter beyond April 25, and therefore returned the file to Court 6 for the continuation of the suit. The judge also said as a vacation judge his mandate was for the hearing of the preliminary objection and application for joinder.

The case was filed by a Civil society Organization, the Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) while the defendants are Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Attorney-General of the Federation, and the BPP over irregularities in the award of the sensitive contract.