Court rejects NNPCL’s objection against Dangote Refinery over licence
Dangote Refinery
Court rejects NNPCL’s objection against Dangote Refinery over licence
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPCL) preliminary objection against a suit filed by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE over oil import licence dispute.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling, yesterday, dismissed the objection on the grounds that the application was incompetent. Justice Ekwo held that the NNPCL ought to have filed a defence in the form of a counter affidavit to the Dangote Refinery’s originating process before objecting.
“It is pertinent for parties to note the distinction between ‘demurrer proceedings” and “proceedings instead of demurrer.’
“The difference is that in the former, the defendant needs not to file a statement of defence, but in the latter, a statement of defence is a sine qua non for an applicant wishing to raise preliminary issues for trial,” he said, citing previous cases to back the decision.
The judge said that under the procedure in lieu of demurrer, any party is entitled to raise, by his pleading, any point of law and any point so raised may be disposed of by the trial court at or after the trial.
“Unlike in the abolished demurrer procedure, where the applicant does not need to file a statement of defence before raising the point of law in contention, this is not so under the procedure instead of demurrer.
“The point of law must be raised first in the statement of defence before the applicant can proceed to file his objection in which the point of law is again raised for determination before the trial.”
The judge observed that the NNPCL, in its preliminary objection, challenged the jurisdiction of the court, among the six issues it raised. He said grounds one to five of the objections are referred to as points of law.
Justice Ekwo, however, held that where a defendant seems to challenge the jurisdiction of the court, it is the provision of Order 29 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules (FHCCPR), 2019, that would be applicable, and which the NNPCL failed to comply with. He said that the NNPCL, having not complied with the provisions of the FHCCPR 2019, had not filed a competent preliminary objection.
“The preliminary objection must be struck out and I so hold,” he ruled.
Also delivering a ruling on the Dangote Refinery’s motion on notice filed to amend its originating motion by correcting the name of the Nigerian National Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to read Nigerian National Company Limited (NNPCL), the judge dismissed the NNPCL’s argument.
Justice Ekwo held that the issue of a mistake in names was just a misnomer in law, which can be corrected at any stage, even while on appeal. He said: “Where the court is faced with an application for amendment, there are relevant issues for consideration which include the attitude of the parties, nature of the amendment, question in controversy,” among all other relevant considerations.
He said the law does not allow a party to file a preliminary objection to stop an application for amendment. According to him, technical errors, like mistakes in writing, are treated as a misnomer. Besides, the judge held that NNPCL would not suffer any miscarriage of justice if the refinery was allowed to amend the suit.
Justice EkwoJustice Ekwo, consequently, made an order directing Dangote to amend its suit by correcting the NNPCL to read Nigerian National Company Limited (NNPCL) instead of Nigerian National Corporation Limited.
