Brave Dickson
Following the refusal by the management of University of Port Harcourt to obey judgment delivered in November 21, 2018 by a federal high court in Port Harcourt, the school graduands of 2015/2016 academic session have entered a contempt suit against the institution.
Presiding Justice Hillary Oshomah in his judgement had ordered the management of UNIPORT to award the graduands their first degree certificates and mobilize them for National Youth Service Corps within 14 days of the judgment.
Justice Oshomah had also ordered the school management to make a refund of all monies collected from the graduands after 2016 and awarded a cost of N500, 000 against the management in favour of the graduands.
The graduands (plaintiffs) were said to have successfully sat and passed their final exams of 2015/2016 academic year, processed their clearances successfully, but were refused to advance further on the grounds that they paid their school fees late.
After the court had fixed May 23, 2019 to hear the contempt suit brought by the plaintiffs against the University of Port Harcourt, the Vice Chancellor, the Registrar, the Senate and the Governing Council (all defendants), lawyer to the plaintiffs, Barr Babatunde Ojo was quoted as saying, “that after the judgment was delivered in Nov 21, 2018 against the defendants, we realised that they were in flagrant disobedience of the court order.
“We filed form 48 for the enforcement of that judgment of the federal high court. After serving the defendants the form, we received a counter affidavit from them in respect of the form 48 and the matter has been fixed for May 23, 2019 for hearing.
“We are waiting for them to come and tell the court the reason why they have disobeyed the court order because court order is meant to be obeyed until it is set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction or appellate court.”
Another lawyer to the plaintiffs, Barr Kingdom Chukwuezie told our correspondent that, “upon the filing of a notice of appeal, the defendants simply compiled records and abandoned the appeal there. We have waited patiently for them to proceed and prosecute the appeal and we discovered that they have become nonchalant, they only did that to frustrate the students so as to deny them of their right.
“Having waited for some months and discovered that they are not doing anything in respect to the appeal, we had gone to the court of appeal with a motion praying the court of appeal to strike out the notice of appeal they have filed for lack of diligent prosecution.
“For the records, the rules of the court of appeal require that for a notice of appeal that has been lodged and record received, the appellant has 45 days to file his brief. The court can not continue to wait because it is not a dumping ground, the court is a place of serious business.
“We are also asking for some costs to be awarded against the defendants because they have wasted the students’ time, so there should be some physical and financial consequence”.
Report reaching TPCN also has it that some of the plaintiffs are contemplating suicide following psychological trauma they are suffering from as a result of the actions of the school management against their academic future.
The development has also created division between some of the plaintiffs and their family members which in turn can cause societal anarchy.
Efforts by TPCN to speak with the university management through its
Chairman, Governing Council, Prof. Mvendaga Jibo proved abortive as he did not pick his phone calls.
