An Abuja High Court has dismissed a suit by a consortium of firms, the Converged Examinations Management Technology Platform Consortium, , seeking to compel the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to uphold an agreement for e-registration of candidates.
In his ruling Justice Sylvanus Oriji held that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
A copy of the ruling was obtained by our correspondent on Sunday.
The judge further held that the breaches complained about by the plaintiffs were administrative actions of the defendants which could only be challenged at the Federal High Court.
He said, “I do not, with due respect, agree with the submission of the learned senior counsel for the plaintiffs that the subject matter of this suit is a simple contract in respect of which this court has jurisdiction.”
CEMPT Consortium had filed the action and joined the Minister of Education, JAMB, the National Examinations Council, the National Business and Technical Examinations Board and the Attorney-General of the Federation as co-defendants to the suit.
The plantiffs also accused the defendants of breaching an agreement for the introduction of CEMPT e-registration.
The plantiffs claimed that their registration system was aimed at delivering best breed solutions of designated examinations in biometrics technology, registration and validation and data capture management.
The plaintiffs accused the Minister of Education of interfering with the CEMPT agreement in breach of the agreement duly entered into.
Accusing the minister of delaying the take-off of the e-registration on the CEMPT platform, the plaintiffs also accused JAMB of abandoning the e-registration on the CEMPT platform and commenced registration of its applicants on the old process by which it charged N3, 650 for its registration alone as against the N850 approved for all the examinations on the CEMPT platform.
The plaintiffs also accused JAMB, NECO and NBTEB of breaching the terms of agreement when they refused to implement the terms of the principal agreement on the grounds that the paper based biometrics e-registration was not acceptable to them.
Justice Okechukwu Okeke of a Federal High Court in Lagos had earlier restrained JAMB from retaining the services of Sidmach Technologies Limited and Electronic Test Company Limited for the registration of candidates for the 2011 examination.
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2010110814205868
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