Lekki-Ikoyi bridge: Lawyer seeks dismissal of stay of judgment

    
Rights lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has urged a Federal High Court in Lagos to dismiss an application seeking a stay of execution of a judgment which declared illegal the collection of tolls from users of the Lekki-Ikoyi bridge.

The motion for stay of execution was filed by the Lagos State Government on March 28, 2014, the day after the judgment was delivered.

Justice Saliu Saidu, who delivered the judgment on March 27, has fixed Wednesday for the hearing of the government’s application.

The judge had in his judgement ruled that government could not collect tolls from the users of the bridge without a law conferring the power on it to do so, in place.

Adegboruwa in opposition to the government’s application for stay of execution of the judgment, had filed a counter-affidavit on April 3, 2014, urging the court to dismiss it.

In the counter-affidavit deposed to by a litigation manager in Adegboruwa’s law firm, Oladapo Sofola,

the lawyer urged the court to dismiss the motion for stay as the government had refused to comply with the judgment since it was delivered.

The counter-affidavit reads in part, “On the said March 27, 2014, the applicant was personally present in court and the 4th respondent (Lagos State Attorney-General) herein, Mr Adetoro Ipaye, was also present in court and they all listened to the judgment of the court and thereafter made comments to commend the court.

“The applicant (Adegboruwa) thereafter proceeded from the court to the Lekki-Ikoyi bridge in his car at about 11am and he met the usual barrier at the toll plaza that the 3rd (Lagos State Government) and 4th respondents erected on the said bridge.

“The applicant was not allowed to pass through the said barrier as officers of the 3rd and 4th respondents, together with armed policemen were on hand to compel motorists and the applicant too, to pay the toll fee before they could be allowed access through the toll plaza.

“The applicant paid N300 for his car to be allowed to pass through the toll plaza, to be able to get to his office in Lekki Phase 1.

“The applicant observed that other motorists exiting Lekki through the bridge across to Ikoyi, were also made to pay the toll fee, on the said day at the said time.

“Since March 27, 2014, when the judgment of this Honourable Court was delivered, the applicant and other motorists using the said Lekki-Ikoyi have been paying.”

The government, through the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Mr. Lawal Pedro (SAN), had said it had in addition to the motion for stay of execution, filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, against the judgment.

The government insisted in its appeal that contrary to the judgment of the court, there was an existing law which gave it power to collect tolls from the users of the bridge.