Group urges court to stop swearing in of ministers-designate

Group urges court to stop swearing in of ministers-designate
By Our Reporter  on November 3, 2015   National
From Taiwo Amodu, Abuja
Ahead of the inauguration of the Buhari’s cabinet, the Youth Concerns Realisation Initiative, (YCRI) has filed a suit to restrain the Federal Government from swearing in the ministers-designate.
 Addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, spokesperson of the group, Blessing Luka, said it has filed a suit in the Federal High Court, Abuja with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Character Commission as co-defendants, challenging the exclusion of what it called the youth section of the Nigerian population in the emerging Federal Executive Council (FEC).
 Luka told newsmen that  the group  had earlier filed a suit to compel Buhari to appoint youth into the cabinet, but  went back to court seeking an injunction to restrain the President from swearing in the ministers-designate.
 In a suit dated Friday, October 30, and filed by their lawyer, Armstrong Uwuoma, the plaintiff listed as the Incorporated Trustees of Youth Concerns Realisation initiative, Israel Gideon, Esele Rita Abhulimen and Stella Okosun Ekata. The suit is specifically seeking:
“An order of interlocutory injunction restraining or prohibiting the fist defendant/respondent or any person or persons as may be delegated by him from swearing in any, and/or assigning ministerial portfolio to any of the ministerial nominees screened or to be screened by the Senate of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria pending the hearing and determination of the originating summons filed in this suit.
“An order of interlocutory injunction of this honourable court restraining or prohibiting the 1st defendant/respondent or any person or persons as may be delegated by him from swearing in any, and/or assigning ministerial portfolio for the Ministry of Youth Development to any of the ministerial nominees screened or to be screened by the Senate of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria pending the hearing and determination of the originating summons filed in this suit
“Such order(s) as this honourable court may deem fit to make in the circumstances of this application.”
The suit was accompanied by a 25-point supporting affidavit sworn to by Labar Ngwaginar Danladi.
 Shedding light on the suit, Luka told newsmen that the group was worried that  “the body language and the handwriting on the wall tell us that the government has little or no interest in including the youths in governance.
“This is the right of the youths. And as advocates of the youths of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the best way we can be sure so we won’t take laws into our hands is to approach the court so they can help us interpret and that is exactly what we are doing by going to court and coming up with an order of injunction,” he said.