Court declines Melaye’s request to restrain Reps from acting on NCDC Bill

From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

A Federal High Court in Abuja has declined a request by Senator Dino Melaye for a restraining order against the House of Representatives on its plan to consider the controversial Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020, otherwise known as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Bill.

Melaye was senator in the Seventh and Eighth National Assembly.

In a ruling on Wednesday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu said she could not issue such an order as sought by Melaye’s lawyer, Nkem Okoro, because the plaintiff was yet to effect service on Speaker of the House of Representatives (the third respondent) as earlier directed by the court.

Okoro had, at the commencement of proceedings on Wednesday, noted that none of the respondents complied with the court’s earlier order to show cause why similar restraining order sought ex parte by the plaintiff should not be granted.

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He argued that in view of the obvious failure of the respondents to show cause, the court should order parties to maintain the status quo, protect the res (subject matter) and prevent a situation where a “fait accompli” would be foisted on the court.

Lawyers, who represented some of the respondents, faulted Okoro’s argument and urged the court to hold otherwise.

In her ruling, Justice Ojukwu rejected Okoro’s request, on the grounds that the court’s order made on May 13, 2020 for the respondents to show cause why they should not be restrained from further considering the Bill (as prayed by Melaye in his ex parte motion), was predicated on the service of court processes (documents) on all the respondents.