The National Industrial Court of Nigeria has fixed September 16th, 2022 to hear the suit filed by the federal government challenging the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
At Monday’s proceedings, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), sought to join the suit as an interested party.
SERAP’s lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, said his client had filed a similar suit asking the court to compel the federal government to honour its 2009 agreement with the striking varsity lecturers.
“We filed a similar suit on 8 September, asking the court to compel the federal government to honour an agreement it willingly entered into with ASUU,” Mr Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said on Monday.
He based SERAP’s joinder request on the need to forestall duplicity of outcomes concerning the industrial dispute.
But the federal government’s lawyer, Tijjani Gazali, also a SAN, opposed Mr Adegboruwa’s application to consolidate the suits.
He told the judge that SERAP’s application was “premature” as the case was billed for mention on Monday.
Reacting to Messrs Adegboruwa and Gazali’s arguments, Femi Falana, another SAN, who represents ASUU, said he was aware of efforts by the lawyers to file court papers in the suit on Monday.
In his ruling on the SERAP’s joinder application, the judge agreed with the federal government that the suit was not ripe for consolidation.
Mr Hamman said he was only presiding as a vacation judge as the case would be assigned to another judge for full adjudication.
Thereafter, the judge ordered parties in the suit to file and exchange their written submissions, and adjourned the case until Friday, 16 September.
