The legal efforts by three aggrieved members of the Bauchi State Council of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ) to stop the election and inauguration of new leadership for the Council has ended as the High Court on Tuesday, struck out the case.
The State High Court No.10 struck out the suit filed against the State Council of NUJ for lack of jurisdiction and awarded a cost of N100,000 against the plaintiff.
Recall that, the State Correspondent of Voice of America (VOA) Abdulwahab Muhammed and three others had filed the case challenging the decision of the recent Congress attended by registered members of the Union.
The complainants also sought the legal interpretation of some sections of the NUJ Constitution in relation to the complaints as contained in their claims before the Court.
However, counsel to the defendants, Barr. Rilwanu Jibrin argued that the State High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the case noting that only the National Industrial Court is the appropriate court to entertain the issue being a labour-related issue.
While delivering the judgement on the arguments before him, Justice Muktar Abubakar affirmed the submissions of the defendants that indeed, the High Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
He therefore dismissed the case for lack of merit and ordered the plaintiffs to pay the sum of money for wasting the time of the court and that of the defendants.
While the case was on, the Advisory Committee of the NUJ had called for peace meeting to settle the matter amicably out of court but the Plaintiffs rejected the move insisting that their conditions for settlement must be met.
The National Secretariat of the NUJ had directed for immediate swearing-in of the New EXCO having concluded the processes by the Credentials Committee.
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