The former Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Professor Bernard Odoh, has taken legal steps against Morufu Alausa, Minister of Education, seeking a court order to halt the reconstitution of the university’s governing council.
This follows the announcement of the dissolution of the university’s council by President Bola Tinubu on November 20, 2024.
This saw the removal of Prof. Bernard Odoh and Registrar Mrs. Rosemary Nwokike. In which, Odoh is challenging the legality of his removal from office as Vice Chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
In an ex parte application filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja alongside the Motion on Notice, in which he also joined the acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ifeanyichukwu Ikechebelu, Odoh is seeking an order of court restraining him from further acting or parading himself as the Acting Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.
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The suit marked No: FHC/ABJ/CS/82/2025 was filed on January 20, 2025, and had Professor Benard Ifeanyi Odoh as the Plaintiff/Applicant and Minister of Education, Federal Ministry of Education, and Prof. Joseph Ifeanyichukwu Ikechebelu as 1st to 3rd Defendants. The motion ex parte was brought pursuant to order section 6(6) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), 26 rules 1 and 2, order 28 rule 2 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, and under the inherent jurisdiction of the honorable court.
Among other reliefs being sought are: “An Order of interim injunction restraining the 1st and 2nd Defendants either by themselves or through their agents, staff or workmen or employees under them or whosoever, from taking any further step to re-constitute the Council or Governing Council of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Anambra State pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice flied along the application.
“An Order of interim injunction restraining the 3rd Defendant from further acting or parading himself as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice filed along the application.
“An Order of interim injunction restraining the Defendants either by themselves or through their agents, staff or workmen or employees under them or whosoever, from further doing anything or taking any step concerning the office or appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Anambra State pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice filed along the application.
“An Order of interim injunction restraining the Defendants either by themselves or through their agents, staff or workmen or employees under them or whosoever, from further doing anything or taking any step concerning the Council or Governing Council of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Anambra State pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice filed along the application.
“And for such Order or further Orders as the Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.”
Among the grounds listed by Odoh is that “Rule of Law demands that once matter is before a court of law, parties are required not to do anything with the subject matter of the action until final judgment is delivered;
“that the 1 and 2nd Defendants are in habit of not respecting court processes; that that there is real urgency as the Defendants are about to destroy the subject matter of the action; that justice of the matter demands that sanity be maintained before the parties resort to self help, and that the Rules of the Honourable Court vested the Plaintiff/Applicant the right to bring the application.”
The hearing for the application by Professor Bernard Odoh has not been fixed.
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