Federal Court orders ADC official to pay N100m to judges

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday struck out a lawsuit filed by a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and ordered him to pay 100 million naira in costs to two senior judges he had accused of bias and corruption. Justice Salim Ibrahim dismissed the suit by ADC National Welfare Secretary Nkemakolam Ukandu for lack of diligent prosecution after neither Ukandu nor his legal counsel appeared in court to pursue the case.

The court directed Ukandu to pay 50 million naira each to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, and Justice Peter Lifu within 14 days. The order followed an oral application by the judges' lawyer, J.U.K. Igwe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who argued his clients were entitled to costs due to the plaintiff's repeated failure to attend proceedings.

Ukandu had sued the National Judicial Council (NJC), Justice Tsoho, and Justice Lifu, seeking an order to compel the NJC to investigate allegations of corruption, abuse of judicial powers, and bias against the two judges. His claims were linked to a separate, ongoing leadership dispute within the ADC.

Court records showed that neither Ukandu nor his lawyer had appeared before...