Alleged Rights Violation: Court reserves ruling on suit against Coca-Cola, NBC

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, fixed February 3, 2015, to determine the legality of the fiat that was issued by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, for the prosecution of Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, its Managing Director, Mr Adeola Aderunji, and the Chief Executive of Nigerian Bottling Company, Ben Langat for alleged violation of the Consumers Protection Council Act.

The accused persons had challenged the mandate the AGF gave to a private legal practitioner, Chief Bayo Ojo, to prosecute them, even as they also queried the competence of the charge and the jurisdiction of the court to entertain same.

Meantime, following a directive of the judge on the last adjourned date, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Aderunji, appeared in court yesterday.

Justice Chukwu had insisted that all the accused persons must present themselves before the trial court regardless of the preliminary objections they raised against the charge.

The judge, who described their absence as a sign of disrespect to the court, noted that since his order to serve the charge on the accused persons by pasting the charges in front of their offices have been duly complied with by the Federal Government, “they must appear before me even if they don’t enter the dock”.

However, counsel to the accused persons, Mr. Gbolahan Elias, and Oluseye Opasanya, argued that their clients needed not to be in court since they were challenging both the mandate to prosecute the case and the competence of the charge.

The Federal Government had through the office of the AGF, filed the two separate charges against the companies and their senior officials for allegedly breaching certain provisions of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) Act.