A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has dismissed a suit filed against the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, challenging her eligibility for appointment by President Goodluck Jonathan into the federal cabinet.
In a ruling delivered on Friday, the presiding judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, dismissed the suit in its entirety, and awarded the sum of N150, 000 as costs against the plaintiffs in favour of Mrs. Alison-Madueke and the NYSC, first and sixth defendants in the suit.
The court also awarded N75, 000 cost in favour of President Jonathan, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who were the second, third and fourth defendants respectively.
In the suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/614/2011, the plaintiffs, Messrs Makelemi Erhuvwurotu and Afri Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, a non-governmental organisation, had shortly before the screening of ministerial nominees forwarded to the Senate by President Jonathan, approached the court via an originating summons filed on June 28, 2011, in which they disputed the eligibility of Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s nomination.
The plaintiffs posed four questions for determination by the court, bordering on whether President Jonathan was entitled to employ the first defendant as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without obtaining an NYSC certificate of service or a valid certificate of exemption; the validity of the certificate of exemption in her possession, and whether her securing employment in the private and public sectors in Nigeria without obtaining a valid certificate of exemption from national service as required by law, did not amount to the commission of a criminal offence under Section 13 of the NYSC Act.
Specifically, the plaintiffs had sought seven reliefs of the court, including a declaration that the petroleum minister was not eligible for employment within the private or public sector in Nigeria until such a time that she undergoes the mandatory NYSC programme or secured a valid certificate of exemption from the service.
Among other prayers, were an order of perpetual injunction restraining President Jonathan from employing Mrs. Alison-Madueke as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in breach of the provisions of section 12 [1] of the NYSC Act; an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Senate from confirming her nomination without obtaining her certificate of National Service or a valid exemption certificate, and an order setting aside or nullifying the certificate of exemption from service in her possession.