A lawsuit filed by certain Nigeria Automobile Technicians Association members against the leadership of Magaji Sani has been dismissed by a Federal High Court in Abuja. Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon ruled that the plaintiffs filed the suit outside the legally permissible timeframe.
In 2014, the former association president Michael Omonayi, who was elected in 2013, ousted and replaced all the members of the Board of Trustees, leading to dissatisfaction among some association members.
The aggrieved members initiated the lawsuit on February 12, 2019, at the Federal High Court in Osogbo, which was later transferred to Abuja. At the time, Sani had assumed the presidency and was re-elected in 2021 by his loyal supporters, despite emerging from the said BoT.
In their lawsuit, the aggrieved members alleged that the replacement of all the BoT members without a resolution at the national delegate conference was unconstitutional and urged the court to declare the dismissal of the BoT members null and void.
The judgment delivered on Monday by Justice Olajuwon reasoned that the case was not filed within the permitted 28-day timeframe as stipulated by law. The judge stated, “The plaintiffs have a right to raise objections to the appointment of the trustee, but they ought to have done so within 28 days when the replacement of the BoT members occurred.”
Consequently, the judge dismissed the suit.
The Nigeria Automobile Technicians Association is a national professional body of micro, small, and medium-scale auto repairers in the informal economy.