BENIN CITY- A Benin High Court has adjourned ruling till Monday next week, on an application on whether it is competent to hear a suit involving the two factions of the
Midwestern Zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Associations of Nigeria, (IPMAN).
It will be recalled, however, that the plaintiffs, Mrs. Ayo Oloyo and others went to court to challenge the constitution of a Caretaker Committee for the Zone to conduct an election by the national body of the association.
In a counter application, the defendants, Chief Solomon Ogbewe and others contended that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit, following the lengthy and watery arguments put forward by the plaintiffs’ counsel.
The counsel to the defendants / applicants, Mr. M. Ikpebor submitted among others, that the defendants were not bonafide members of IPMAN and therefore lacked the locus standi to challenge any matter affecting the Association.
Meanwhile, the court will on the same day begin hearing on a contempt charge instituted against Mrs. Ayo Oloyo and others by the plaintiffs / respondents.
An affidavit deposed to by Chief Solomon Ogbewe on behalf of himself and IPMAN, wanted Mrs. Ayo Oloyo, the immediate past chairman of IPMAN in the zone and others committed to prison for flouting the order of the court, that they should not conduct or handover their positions as the executives of IPMAN Midwestern Zone to any person, pending the determination of the case.
Chief Ogbewe, through his counsel, M. Ukpebor submitted that the defendants/ respondents (Ayo Oloyo and others) had earlier secured an injunction from the court which restrained the caretaker committee members from functioning in that capacity, but only to discover that the order was flouted as they conducted an election and swore in the executives into various positions in the Midwestern Zone.
This, the plaintiff / respondents (Chief Ogbewe) said, was a flagrant violation of the court’s injunction.
He further deposed that the said election and its outcome were published in a Benin – based newspaper, even as he said that he had video tapes of the said illegal election which he volunteered to the court whenever requested.
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