Fund raising platform: NCC appeals court ruling

Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, has appealed the ruling of Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, that the commission should pay the sum of N500million as damages to All Progressive Congress, APC.
In a statement issued yesterday by NCC, it said that the counsel to the commission, Mr. Paul Usoro, SAN, had gone to the Court of Appeal to appeal against the judgment.
Citing eight grounds for the appeal, the counsel said he had the mandate of his client, the NCC, to appeal against the entire judgement.
Usoro averred that the trial judge erred in law when he dismissed the appellant’s Notice of Preliminary Objection of March 2, 2015, which challenged the competence of the suit on the grounds that same was unmeritorious, adding that on ground two, the trial judge erred in law when he held that the suit of the APC disclosed cause of action against the appellant.
Usoro in the notice of appeal noted that the trial court misdirected itself in law and fact when it held that the suit as constituted fell under the context of Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and not rooted in contract.
He explained in the notice of appeal that the trial court erred in law and occasioned grave miscarriage of justice when it held that the first respondent had seemingly complained of discrimination by the appellant.
The notice of appeal also said the trial judge erred in law when he held that the appellant had indeed discriminated against the first respondent when it granted the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation in 2011 the right to use short codes and did not allow the first respondent same right in 2015.
Part of the notice of appeal is that the trial judge erred in law when it invalidated the appellant’s directive contained in its letter of January 19, 2015.
Usoro said in the NCC appeal that the trial judge misdirected itself in law and on facts when it awarded N500 million as damages and compensation for first respondent.
The appeal filed yesterday at the Court of Appeal in Lagos seeks an order of the court allowing the appeal and setting aside in its entirety the judgment of the trial judge made on March 24, 2015, including the monetary damages of N500million awarded in favour of first respondent.