Ex-Minister Tallen, Appeals Judgment Which Barred Her from Holding Public Office

A former Minister of Women Affairs in the administration of President Muhammadu Bu­hari, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, has approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, seeking to set aside the judgment of an FCT High Court which barred her from holding public office.

Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court had on Decem­ber 18 barred Tallen in a case filed against her by the Nigeria Bar As­sociation (NBA) over her alleged “disparaging” comment against an earlier court judgment.

The Judge had, however, given Tallen an option of publishing a personally signed apology letter to the NBA, the judiciary and Nige­rians in one full page each of two national dailies within 30 days from the date of its judgment, failing which the order becomes perpetual.

Tallen prayed the Court of Appeal to set aside the said judg­ment, arguing that the ruling was tantamount to a miscarriage of justice.

In a notice of appeal filed on January 2, 2024, Tallen, through her lawyer, JK Gadzama (SAN), formulated 13 grounds of appeal against the trial court’s decision.

The former Deputy Governor of Plateau and one-time Minister of State, Science and Technology, also prayed the appellate court to, among other reliefs, dismiss the suit and set aside the decision of the court.

She stressed that the trial court erred in law, arguing that its deci­sion against her preliminary ob­jection on the competence of the respondent’s affidavit, locus stan­di, propriety of the suit, in spite of the credible evidence submitted, was a miscarriage of justice.

It would be recalled that while delivering judgment on the case, the FCT High Court had de­scribed Tallen’s alleged comments against the judiciary concerning a decision of the Federal High Court in Adamawa State as “un­constitutional, careless, reckless, disparaging.”

It further held that the former minister’s call to disobey the judg­ment of the court was “contemp­tuous of the Federal High Court of Nigeria.”

Tallen’s battle with the NBA began after Sen. Aisha Dahiru (Binani), the then Adamawa APC governorship flagbearer, had polled 430 votes to defeat her closest rival, Nuhu Ribadu, who polled 288, during the May 2022 APC primary elections.

Binani’s closest opponent, Nuhu Ribadu, now National Secu­rity Adviser (NSA), challenged the outcome of the contest but Justice Abdulaziz Anka nullified Binani’s victory on account of non-compli­ance with the Electoral Act 2022, Nigeria’s constitution, and the APC’s guidelines.

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Tallen, as the serving Minister of Women Affairs and stalwart of the APC, while reacting to the judgment at a public function allegedly described it as a Kan­garoo judgment, whose aim was the marginalisation of women in Nigerian politics.

She alleged that many wom­en, like Binani, who was the only female aspirant in the Adamawa APC governorship primary, were not fairly treated during the pri­maries for the 2023 general elec­tions.

The NBA, led by its President, Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), did not take the former minister’s com­ments lightly and sought an apol­ogy from her but to no avail.

The NBA then wrote her a letter, dated November 14, 2022, demanding a withdrawal of the alleged disparaging comments and tendering of an unreserved and public apology to the court, which Tallen did not oblige.

According to the NBA, its let­ter was never responded to and its demands therein were not complied with by Tallen, hence the institution of the suit against her before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.