A Federal High Court in Lagos has issued an injunction restraining telecom operators in the country from deactivating or barring any SIM card whose user has not linked it to the National Identification Number.
Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa granted the restraining order on February 22, 2024, while ruling on an application for restraining orders filed by rights activist Olukoya Ogungbeje.
Ogungbeje brought a suit against the federal government, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, and Airtel Networks Nigeria Limited.
In his suit, Ogungbeje sought an injunction pending appeal, preventing the respondents from enforcing a judgment delivered on May 8, 2023, by Justice Lewis-Allagoa. The judgment dismissed Ogungbeje’s initial suit challenging the respondents’ actions against the judiciary and Nigerian legal system, which he claimed infringed on fundamental rights.
Ogungbeje lodged an appeal against the judgment on July 26, 2023, and sought the court’s intervention to halt SIM card deactivation, which was scheduled for February 28, 2024, pending the appeal’s determination at the Court of Appeal.
The application listed 10 grounds, asserting that the appeal contests the entirety of the judgment issued by the court. It stated “that sometime in April 2022, the appellant/applicant herein took out a suit against the respondents, challenging the action of the respondents in undermining the judicial powers of the court and the Nigerian legal system and thus infringing on the applicant’s fundamental rights
“That this court in a well considered judgment delivered on May 8, 2023, dismissed the appellant/applicant’s suit.
“That the appellant/applicant being dissatisfied with the judgment has exercised his constitutional right of appeal by lodging a notice of appeal against the judgment of this Honourable court on July 26, 2023, by the lower court.
“That the appellant/applicant’s appeal is against the whole decision contained in the judgment of this court.”
