The Students Association of the Law Society, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG) has won the fourth Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) Annual Mooting Competition.
The society scored 82.25 per cent to beat five other universities including University of Benin (UNIBEN); University of Nigeria, Nnsuka (UNN); Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife; Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo and Babcock University, Ilishan. They were marked “Team A-F”.
OAU was the first runner-up with 81.25 per cent while UNN was the second runner-up. The competition, which held at the auditorium of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies(NIALS), had Magistrate Adejumoke Olagbegi-Adelabu and Ms. Onyinye Ukegbu as judges.
John Odey of OAU won the award for the best “Oralist Advocate”.
The UNIBEN team won last year, defeating UNILAG and LASU.
In this year’s competition, Manedi is as a imaginary republic; Tavardi a state and Fentoc a local government council area in Tavardi. Team F (UNILAG) was represented by Jaiyeoba Daniel and Timilehin Oyewo; Team B (UNN) by Omeye Emenike and Micheal Nwaneka and Team E (OAU) by Odey and Elizabeth Whesu.
The plaintiff, Gaston Minerals Limited, represented by Team F, filed a suit at the Federal High Court of Manedi, within the Tavardi judicial division, against the Federal Government of Manedi and prayed the court for damages for frustrating a contract to mine uraniums. Gaston Minerals listed defendants to include the Attorney-General of the Federal Republic of Manendi as first defendant and Fentoc City Local Government as second defendant. They were represented by Team B and Team E respectively.
The plaintiff, Gaston Minerals, sought seven reliefs from the court, urging it court to determine whether Fentoc City Local Government exists under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Manendi; whether the Tavardi State House of Assembly can validly pass a law renaming Fentoc town as Fentoc City; whether Fentoc City amended law amounted to a declaration of the independence of Tavardi State under the constitution and international conventions and laws.
Gaston further prayed the ‘court’ to determine whether Fentoc City Local Government has jurisdiction to seal off the uranium mines; whether the new President of Manendi, Kato, can validly terminate and re-award mining contract earlier awrded to another company, Toma Company International Limited, and whether President of Manendi is stopped from denying the de jure existence of Tavardi State as a republic among other prayers.
The Attorney-General, the first defendant in the suit, filed a defence where he claimed that the suit was wrongly filed and that the matter ought to be between the plaintiff and Tavardi State with Fentoc Local Government as co-defendant.
Fentoc Local Government, on the other hand, filed a statement of defense in which it claimed control over the uranium mine and other minerals in the state, having declared that the state is independent of the republic of Manendi and as attested to by its state House of Assembly, which passed a bill into law to declare its independence and which has been signed by the governor, Dansaki.
All the counsels filed written briefs to support their clients’ positions, the judges however, did not deliver any judgment but made observations on the briefs. In her observation, Magistrate Olagbegi-Adelabu noted that the briefs of Teams F, E and B are similar in style and are more of rulings and judgments than lawyers’ submissions. She took the students through how briefs and submissions are written by lawyers as against the style for writing judgments.
Ukegbu, who said she had “floor fright” on her first day in court, commended the students for exhibiting confidence and standing their ground in the defence of the reliefs they sought.
The two judges noted that the teams were articulate and praised the students for their diligence and for presenting well researched positions before the court. They told the teams that their verdict was based on the facts presented by the counsels for the plaintiff, the first and second defendants.
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