Daniel Bwala, Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, has emerged victorious in a multimillion-naira lawsuit against the National Assembly.
The court judgment, delivered by Justice M.M. Adamu on Thursday, followed a suit tagged FCT/HC/CV/905/2024, wherein Mr Bwala accused the National Assembly of failing to pay the agreed-upon professional fees charged for the legal services he rendered in 2022.
“It is hereby ordered that the defendants pay claimant sum of N40, 000,000 only being debt owed by the Defendants to the Claimant for concluded cases,” the judgment stated. “The party shall bear the cost of their individual suits. The third relief is hereby refused.”
The spokespersons for the National Assembly did not respond to requests seeking comments on whether the legislative arm will appeal the judgment.
The court document showed that Mr Bwala had approached the court after representing the defendants in two separate cases, seeking three reliefs, including payment of his professional fees, N15 million for the cost of his suit, and 10 per cent of the judgment sum to be awarded by the court until the liquidation of the same.
“He averred that by letters of instruction dated 31st March, 2022, the defendants engaged the legal services of his law firm in the following cases: (a) Suit No FHC/MU/CS/26/22 between the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives & Anor vs The Attorney General of the Federation & 4ors; (b) Suit No. FHC/AB/CS/318/2022 between Comrade Daniel Donald Onjeh vs Attorney General of the Federation & 1or,” the court noted.
The claimant said he accepted the briefs and charged N20 million for his professional fees for each of the cases, noting “he took steps to file all court processes, appeared in all the cases, both within and outside jurisdiction and prosecuted the cases to their logical conclusion.”
The claimant, however, added that the defendants failed to pay the agreed-upon professional fees despite serving them a pre-action notice and bill of charges as required by law.
In response, the National Assembly filed a statement of defence, admitting that they had assigned the claimant to enter legal representation to defend the National Assembly and the then-speaker of the House of Representatives (Femi Gbajabiamila) in the matters claimed.
The National Assembly, however, denied agreeing to pay Mr Bwala the amount claimed for the alleged services.
“Rather, the amount payable to such legal services is the sum of N6, 679,687.05 and nothing more. That is the standard payment for constitutional cases of this nature and that claimant is only entitled to the sum of N13, 359,374.1,” the court document further noted.
When contacted for comments, Mr Bwala expressed satisfaction with the court verdict, noting that he had approached the court when the new leadership of the National Assembly wanted to brush the matter aside.
Credit: Peoples Gazette
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