The Nigerian Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has appealed to protesting youths who are aggrieved by the court judgment which recently granted one-year tenure extension to the six FCT Area Council Chairmen whose three years tenure of office expired on the 19th of May, 2022, to remain calm and law abiding.
The Permanent Secretary of the FCTA, Mr. Olusade Adesola made the appeal in Abuja on Friday, May 20 when he received some aggrieved youths of the FCT who were protesting the court judgment.
The Permanent Secretary explained that the FCT Administration, in line with the provision of law, has approached a superior court to vacate the judgment, made by the High Court.
According to the Permanent Secretary, the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, following the ruling of the High Court, had constituted a team to review the judgment and advise on the way forward.
He said the team advised the Minister to abide by the court ruling, but also go ahead to appeal.
Mr. Adesola explained that the FCTA is compelled under the law to obey the judgment and seek further redress at a superior court.
According to him, “As you have said, the Honourable Minister is a person of integrity, impeccable character, law abiding and has great respect for rule of law, even when it inconveniences him. With that token, when he received the judgment, he immediately constituted a team to look at this judgment and advise on what to do. If any of you had been invited to the meeting, I know you would have done just what his advisers told him – abide by the ruling, but go ahead to appeal the ruling”.
The Permanent Secretary therefore called on the protesting youths to remain calm and resist any attempts to disrupt the tranquility the Territory is known for.
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Mr. Adesola who commended the youths for airing their grievances in a peaceful and organized manner and for making genuine efforts to find out what went wrong, assured that the courts are populated with men of integrity who would do the right thing.
According to him, “This is democracy at its best. Democracy permits people the freedom. When you are able to speak your mind, to air your grievances, that is what democracy entails and that is what you are doing here. So, for us in the FCT, we want to thank you for coming down here, rather than taking to the road where nobody will understand you, but coming to find an explanation to what has happened.
“Today, as I speak to you, an appeal has been filed, so that the correct position of the law will be determined. What we have done, all information you have said here and what gladdens our heart is that there is none of the opinions you argued here that was not in the appeal. Everything you said here has been put in the appeal and we believe the appeal will scale through within the shortest possible time.”
“But on the part of the FCT Administration, I assure you that justice will be done. I want to implore you, if the court had invited us today, we would have been there today.”
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Also addressing the aggrieved youths, the Chief of Staff to the FCT Minister, Malam Bashir Mai-Bornu, urged the youths to exercise patience and allow the due process of law to run its course.
Mr. Mai Bornu said, “We need to be law abiding citizens. All the actions you have taken is to also follow the law so that the law will not be broken or hijacked by hoodlums.”
“One of the key and important traits of the human being in order for him to succeed is to have a lot of patience. Whoever that does not have patience will have problems along the way”, he added.
Emmanuel Ukoh
