Former Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has appealed the judgment of the high court in Abuja barring her from holding public office.
Tallen filed 32 grounds of appeal against the decision of the lower court.
Recall that in October 2023, the federal high court in Yola nullified the candidacy of Aishatu Dahiru (Binani), the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Adamawa in the last general election.
Reacting to the verdict, Tallen who expressed her dissatisfaction with the court’s decision, called it a “Kangaroo judgment” and advised Nigerians to reject it.
Tallen made the comment when she was the minister in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Following this, Yakubu Maikyau, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), wrote to the former minister, asking her to withdraw the comments and tender an unreserved apology to the court for the “disparaging and contemptuous remarks.”
The NBA had threatened to institute a suit against Tallen if she failed to withdraw her statement.
But the NBA claimed the letter was never responded to, hence a suit was filed against the former minister.
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In his judgment, Peter Kekemeke of the FCT high court condemned Tallen’s “disparaging comments” against the judiciary over a decision of the court.
The court declared that the said remark was “unconstitutional, careless, reckless, disparaging.”
The court ordered that the injunction restraining the defendant from holding any public office in Nigeria shall become perpetual if she fails to abide by the order directing her to publish an apology within 30 days.
However, in a notice of appeal, the former minister asked the court of appeal to set aside the judgment of the lower court, saying it was a miscarriage of justice when it held contrary to a decision of a Supreme Court that a lawyer cannot depose to an affidavit in respect of a matter he participated in.
Tallen argued that the lower court erred and failed to consider her preliminary objection on the competence of the respondent’s affidavit, locus standi and propriety of the suit.
She wants the Court of Appeal to set aside the trial court’s decision, uphold her preliminary objection to the NBA suit, and dismiss the judgment while awarding cost.
