By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Scores of protesters besieged Federal High Court Lagos Nigeria on Monday morning, demanding ‘justice for lottery operators’
The protest was in connection to a lottery operations case between Western Lotto Ltd and National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Registrar of Trademarks, Premier Lotto Ltd and 22 others, before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke.
A former Ogun State Senator Chief Buruji Kashamu is the owner of Western Lotto Ltd while Premier Lotto, popularly known as Baba Ijebu, is owned by Chief Adebutu Kensington.
In the suit marked FHC/L/CS/2321/19, Western Lotto Ltd alleged that the rival lottery firms infringed its licence on “Ghana games”, a popular lotto product.
But the protesters bearing placards with inscriptions such as ‘Justice is not for sale’, ‘Shine your eyes’, ‘Stop abusing judicial process,” claimed that there was ‘judicial bias’ in the handling of the suit.
The protesters who arrived at about 8.00am were outside the court’s premises chanting solidarity songs, including” We no go gree oh, we want justice, we no go gree”, as they marched round the court’s premises.
However the protest stalled the hearing of the case which was to hold Monday morning (today). It was therefore adjourned till tomorrow (Tuesday).
In a Motion on Notice brought pursuant to Section 6(6) of the 1999 Constitution, the third defendant, Premier Lotto Ltd, is seeking three reliefs, including “An order declining jurisdiction to entertain, adopt or otherwise give effect to the Terms of Settlement dated 10th of July 2020 executed between the Plaintiff and the 1st Defendant” and “An order striking out the Terms of Settlement”.
