Former Women Affairs Minister, Pauline Tallen, has approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, seeking to set aside the judgment of a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court which barred her from holding public office.
Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court had on December 18 barred Mrs Tallen in a case filed against her by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over her alleged “disparaging” comment against an earlier court judgement.
The judge had, however, given Mrs Tallen an option of publishing a personally signed apology letter to the NBA, the judiciary and Nigerians in one full page each of two national dailies, the Guardian and The PUNCH, within 30 days from the date of its judgement, failing which the order becomes perpetual.
Mrs Tallen prayed the Court of Appeal to set aside the said judgment, arguing that the ruling was tantamount to a miscarriage of justice.
In a notice of appeal filed on January 2, 2024, Mrs Tallen, through her lawyer, JK Gadzama, SAN, formulated 13 grounds of appeal against the trial court’s decision.
The ex-Deputy Governor of Plateau State and one-time Minister of State for Science and Technology, also prayed the appellate court to, among other reliefs, dismiss the suit and set aside the decision of the court below.
She stressed that the trial court erred in law, arguing that its decision against her preliminary objection on the competence of the respondent’s affidavit, locus standi, propriety of the suit, in spite of the credible evidence submitted, was a miscarriage of justice.
Recall that while delivering judgment on the case, the FCT High Court had described Mrs Tallen’s alleged comments against the judiciary concerning a decision of the Federal High Court in Adamawa State as “unconstitutional, careless, reckless and disparaging.”
It further held that the former minister’s call to disobey the judgment of the court was “contemptuous of the Federal High Court of Nigeria.”
Mrs Tallen’s battle with the NBA began after Senator Aisha Dahiru (Binani), the then Adamawa All Progressives Congress governorship flagbearer, polled 430 votes to defeat her closest rival, Nuhu Ribadu, who polled 288, during the May, 2022 APC primary elections.
Ms Binani’s closest opponent, Nuhu Ribadu, now National Security Adviser, challenged the outcome of the contest but Justice Abdulaziz Anka nullified Ms Binani’s victory on account of non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022, Nigeria’s constitution, and the APC’s guidelines.
Mrs Tallen, then the serving Minister of Women Affairs and chieftain of the APC, while reacting to the judgment at a public function, allegedly described it as a Kangaroo judgment, whose aim was the marginalisation of women in Nigerian politics.
She alleged that many women, like Binani, who was the only female aspirant in the Adamawa APC governorship primary, were not treated fairly during the primaries for the 2023 general elections.
The NBA, led by its then President, Yakubu Maikyau, SAN, did not take the former minister’s comments lightly and sought an apology from her but to no avail.
The NBA then wrote her a letter, dated 14 November, 2022, demanding a withdrawal of the alleged disparaging comments and tendering of an unreserved and public apology to the Court, but Mrs Tallen did not oblige.
According to the NBA, its letter was never responded to and its demands therein were not complied with by Mrs Tallen, hence the institution of the suit against her before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.
(NAN)