The interlocutory judgement by Justice Ogazi at the Federal High Court Ikoyi between the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN) against the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) came up for hearing as scheduled on July 05, 2024.
In legal jargon, an interlocutory judgement is a non-final judgment that resolves an element of a claim or another issue without deciding the full case This often comes after an interlocutory injunction which also is a court order to compel or prevent a party from doing certain acts pending the final determination of the case. It is an order made at an interim stage during the trial, and is usually issued to maintain the status quo until judgment can be made.
Based on the above, AMMBANs prayer was that the court should restraint the CAC from intimidating or harassing AMMBAN Agents come July 07,2024 in a bid to enforce compliance, pending when the Judgement for the actual suit against the CAC is given.
In the ruling, the trial judge citing CAMA which literally put says for such judgement to be given it should take a stipulated minimum period of thirty days but the case was only brought before the court in June with the first hearing on June 24,2024 and July 05,2024 being the 2nd hearing, based on this Justice Ogazi could not grant the request of AMMBAN just yet but adjourned the hearing till October 15, 2024.
The CAC has however failed to appear in court for all the sittings so far this prompted TNNO to asked Barrister Samuel Umesi the way forward based on the judgement given and his response was that ideally once a case is before a court all parties concerned are meant to maintain status quo.
It will be recalled that the CAC initially requested that in a bid to curb crime, all Mobile Money and Bank Agents must ensure their businesses are registered with the CAC on or before July 07,2024 however in a recent release by the CAC, the deadline has been postponed to September 05,2024
Unfortunately the CAC directive to Agents was flouted by AMMBANs President Sarafadeen Fasasi who had previously reacted to the issue saying “We disagree with the CAC’s claim that it wants to fight crimes in the agency banking business space through registration. We believe that the kinds of crimes in the space are both human and technical, which CAC registration cannot fight. We see their efforts as merely a revenue generation move to further tax hapless Nigerians who are trying to get”