Court stops Nigeria Air indefinitely, adjourns case till 2023

A Federal High Court in Lagos has stopped the establishment of the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air, by the Federal Government.

Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, on Thursday, reordered the Federal Government and domestic airlines to maintain status quo in their suit relating to the establishment of airline.

The judge made the order pending the determination of the suit filed by the Registered Trustees of the Airline Operators of Nigeria and five others in the aviation industry.

The four other plaintiffs include Azman Air Services Limited, Air Peace Limited, Max Air Limited, United Nigeria Airlines Company Limited and Topbrass Aviation Limited, who were the first to sixth plaintiffs.

The first to fourth defendants include Nigeria Air Limited, Ethiopian Airlines, Senator Hadi Sirika (Minister of Aviation, Federal Ministry of Aviation) and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

This came as the Federal Ministry of Aviation declared on Thursday that it would deploy every necessary step to vacate the order that had stopped the ongoing work towards to establishment of the national airline.

After series of legal work, the judge, on Thursday, ordered that the national carrier should be halted and subsequently adjourned the case till February 2023.

Also, a fresh suit was instituted by one of the Chief Executive Officers of the domestic carriers, Captain Edward Boyo, seeking the name of the Board of Registered Trustees of the Airline Operators of Nigeria to be removed from the suit on the grounds that members of the association did not agree to sue the Federal Government over the national carrier project.

Two “intervenors/applicants” filed an application begging the court to strike out the name of The Registered Trustees of the Airline Operators of Nigeria as a party in a suit, arguing that its inclusion in the suit “is invalid”

On November 15, 2023, the court granted the plaintiffs an interim injunction restraining the Federal Government and Ethiopian Airlines from proceeding with the establishment of Nigeria Air Limited.

Justice Lewis-Allagoa also ordered all parties to the suit to maintain the status quo following the plaintiffs’ motion ex parte in Suit FHC/L/CS/2159/2022.

At the resumed hearing of the matter on Thursday, Nureni Jimoh, SAN, appeared for the airline operators.

Jimoh’s bid to move his motion on notice for an injunction against the defendants was opposed by Seun Oriowo, for Nigeria Air and Minister of Aviation; Raji Rasaki, for the AGF, and Ajibola Salisu for the intervening applicants.

The judge turned down Rasaki’s argument for an adjournment for lawyers from the AGF’s Abuja office to take over the defence, rather than those from its Lagos office.

Bassey Attol, for Ethiopian Airlines, informed the court that he had filed a response to Jimoh’s application, while Salisu’s prayer for an adjournment was opposed by Jimoh, on the ground that “the intervening applicants are not a party to this suit. They are interlopers here to disrupt proceedings.”

In his ruling, Justice Lewis-Allagoa held, “I’ve reviewed all the applications before me. In the circumstances, the proper thing to do is for the parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of this suit.”