By Our Correspondent
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Ibadan on Wednesday struck out an application seeking to stay the execution of a February 24, 2021 judgement of the court on the leadership tussle in the Ogun State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The court reaffirmed the validity of the election of Comrade Soji Amosu as the NUJ Chairman in Ogun State and rejected the request of Union President, Comrade Chris Isiguzo, and 13 others to halt the judgement.
Isiguzo and 13 others had filed the application for stay of execution against the February 24, 2021 judgement of the NICN sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The court, presided over by Justice J. D. Peters, struck out the application for stay of execution after listening to the submissions of counsel to both parties in the suit.
Following the strong response of Amosu's counsel, Mr. Deji Enisenyin, the counsel to Isiguzo and 13 other applicants, Mr. Bakare, quickly pleaded with the judge to allow for withdrawal of the application rather than dismissing it.
Bakare pleaded that since he had filed similar application before the Court of Appeal, the lower court should allow him to withdraw the application for stay of execution before it.
But ruling on the matter, Justice Peters struck out the application for stay of execution, dismissing the plea for withdrawal.
The court verdict, which reaffirmed the status of Comrade Amosu as the duly elected chairman of NUJ in Ogun State, was a further setback to Isiguzo and his cohorts who had allegedly devised several failed unconstitutional schemes to sack the Amosu-led executive.
It will be recalled that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Ibadan on February 24, this year, affirmed the election of Comrade Soji Amosu as the duly elected Chairman of Ogun NUJ.
The court, in suit number NICN/IB/85/2019, also affirmed the election of Comrades Kunle Olayeni, Kunle Ewuoso and Abiodun Taiwo as validly elected Vice Chairman, Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the union respectively.
The court held that the purported annulment of the March 29, 2019 election which brought the claimants into office was illegal and against the NUJ constitution.
It also granted seven of the eight reliefs sought by the applicants and awarded a cost of N200,000 against the respondents.
Amosu and three others had dragged the NUJ President, Comrade Chris Isiguzo, the NUJ National Secretary, Comrade Shuaib Leman, and 12 other defendants, challenging the purported decision of the union's national leadership to nullify the election of the claimants.
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