A Kaduna state High Court, presided over by Justice Esther Lolo, has ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pay six lawyers the negotiated/agreed sum of N156million.
The judgment follows a motion on notice brought in suit No. KDH/KAD/60/2020 before the court by the counsel to the six plaintiffs, namely; Abdullahi Yahaya, M. I. Abubakar, Issac Dapun, Giovanni La’ah, Abdulrauf Atiku, and Kabir Abdullahi, who are all Kaduna based legal practitioners.
The plaintiffs had approached the court for an order entering summary judgment in their favour against the defendant/respondent, APC for the negotiated/agreed sum of N156m being what was due to them as professional fees for the legal services rendered to the APC.
After listening to the plaintiffs’ counsel, Justice Lolo gave the summary judgment in favour of the plaintiffs with the cost of filling the suit to be paid by the defendant /respondent. The defendant is also to pay 10% on the judgment sum until finally settled.
“In order to file and prosecute the petitions of the defendant and its candidates and defend the petitions that had been filed against the defendant, Kaduna state chairman of APC and the party’s legal adviser held a meeting with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd plaintiffs.
“The plaintiffs stated that their reports for all legal proceedings in which they represented the defendant and its candidates were regularly written and submitted to the defendant.
“The plaintiffs informed the defendant that their professional fees for representing the defendant and its candidates in petitions and action/suit amount to N156m, while the reimbursable expenses in form filing fees, processing expenses, cost of obtaining certified true copies of documents due to the plaintiffs amounted to N4.2 million.”
