A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has issued an order directing President Bola Tinubu and the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, to respond to a request to compel the President to suspend him from office pending the determination of a suit querying his competence for the job.

Justice Mohammed Madugu (sitting in the Bwari division of the court) issued the order in a ruling on an ex parte motion filed by a group, the Incorporated Trustees of Initiative for Promotion of Civic Obligation and Sustainable Peace.

Justice Madugu declined the group’s requests, made ex parte, that President Tinubu be compelled to suspend Ojulari or that the NNPC boss be ordered to step down forthwith.

The two reliefs, in respect of which President Tinubu and Ojulari are to file a response, are:

“An interim order directing and mandating the first defendant, in the exercise of his the constitutional duty, to suspend or direct the third defendant (Bayo Ojulari) to temporarily step aside from office as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and in his stead appoint another person in acting capacity, pending the conclusion of the investigation by the second defendant (EFCC) pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

“An order of interim injunction restraining the third defendant (Bayo Ojulari), being subject of ongoing or an investigation by the second defendant (EFCC) over the aforementioned allegations bothering on gross misconduct, abuse of office, act of money laundering, financial and economic crimes in the discharge of his duties, from discharging duties or exercising the functions of the office of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

The requests were part of the six principal reliefs sought by the group in the motion ex parte it filed on November 27.

The President is listed as the first defendant in the suit, while Ojulari is named as the third defendant.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which the plaintiff claimed is currently investigating Ojulari, is named as the second defendant.

The judge granted the following reliefs:

The court issued an order directing the defendants/respondents to show cause within 14 days why prayers three and four (highlighted above) should not be granted.

Granted leave to the claimant to effect substituted service of all court documents it has filed so far, in relation to the case, on the President through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja.

It is also ordered that the claimant serve the originating documents on the NNPC boss “through the officer or staff of the Legal Department of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, at its head office at NNPC Towers, Herbert Macaulay Way, Central Business District, Abuja.”

The judge also issued an order deeming the substituted service on the President and Ojulari as proper and valid.

The judge subsequently granted an accelerated hearing in the case and adjourned till January 19 for the hearing. (The Guardian)

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