A court in Lagos State, hearing a suit filed by the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Lamido Sanusi, against the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), suspended proceedings on Friday when the temperature of the room became unbearable.
Due to poor supply of electricity from the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, the Federal High Court, Lagos was relying on generator-powered electricity supply which its unexpected refusal to come on, threw the court into darkness.
None of the seven giant generators came on, forcing the Judge to conduct proceedings in near-dark room with no air conditioning units.
Due to the increasing room temperature, counsels were permitted to remove their wigs if they wished while some lawyers turned their papers to hand fans.
Channels Television judiciary correspondent, Shola Soyele, reports that there are ten judges, who sit at the Federal High Court in Lagos, but owing to the power outage and the unbearable heat in the court, only three judges conducted skeletal sittings to accommodate lawyers and litigants who had come before them.
When the heat became unbearable, Justice James Tsoho had to adjourn the case between Lamido Sanusi and the FRCN till next Thursday.
This is coming a day after the Lagos State government ended the 2014 Economic Summit focusing on power sufficiency.
Mr Sanusi had filed a suit before Justice James Tsoho, urging the court to restrain the FRCN from investigating him.
Last week, the judge had issued an order restraining the Council from continuing its investigations against the suspended CBN governor until the suit had been heard.
The defendants had filed a preliminary objection to Mr Sanusi’s suit challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the case.
Justice Tsoho said he would hear the objection and the plaintiff’s motion together.
Mr Sanusi recently won a separate suit against the Federal Government and security agencies for the unlawful seizure of his international passport after he was suspended.
The court asked the Department of State Security Service and the Nigerian Police to pay Mr Sanusi 50 million Naira damage.
Sanusi was suspended on allegations of financial recklessness.