NAGPPE floors PCN as Appeal Court upholds appeal

...Orders renewal of NAGPPE members’ licenses

By KELECHI MGBOJI

After about ten years of protracted legal tussle, the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna has upheld the suit brought before it by the Nigeria Association of General Practice Pharmacist Employers (NAGPPE) against the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN).

By this judgment delivered on Friday, November 29 2013 at the Kaduna Judicial Division, which has set aside earlier judgment of a Kaduna High Court, members of the association and all investors who meet the old conditions for licensing and renewal of licences as employers of general practice pharmacists can now have their licences renewed or obtain new ones from PCN.

Upholding all the four grounds of appeal in favour of NAGPPE, Honorable Justice Ita Mbaba said “I agree that there is merit in this appeal and I allow the appeal. The judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna in suit No FHC/KD/CP/8/01 delivered by Honorable Justice Liman on the 25^th of July, 2003 is set aside.”

Continuing in the landmark judgment, Mbaba who read the judgment, declared that the new regulations laid down or stipulated by the respondents in their circular dated 15^th of November 1995 for the registration or renewal of the registration of pharmaceutical premises were made without lawful authority and are irregular, unlawful, and null and void.

The appellate court further issued an order of mandamus directing the respondents to register/or renew the registration of the pharmaceutical premises of the NAGPPE members who fulfilled the requirements that had earlier existed before the new regulations being contested were introduced.

In similar vein, the court issued an injunction restraining PCN, their agents, servants, privies from implementing or enforcing the said new regulations in processing registration and/or renewal of registration of the pharmaceutical premises of the applicants (that is members of NAGPPE).

The regulation that precipitated the legal tussle was issued on the 15^th of November 1995 by the Inspectorate Unit of the Ministry of Health, Kaduna State, which the PCN capitalized on to clamp down of members of NAGPPE in Kaduna State and in other places.

On March 23^rd 2003, the Kaduna State chapter of NAGPPE went to court to contest the new regulations tagged Annexure C stipulating new conditions for ‘Registration of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Premises for 1996 and Years Ahead’.

But the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna in suit No FHC/KD/CP/8/01 delivered by Honorable Justice Liman on the 25^th of July, 2003 held that the suit was not filed within the limit period, and consequently the trial judge struck out other prayers of the plaintiff.  

However, on September 2^nd 2003, the national body of NAGPPE led by Chief Gabo Onyejemuo, through their counsel, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), filed an appeal against the judgment of the lower court.

Joining the PCN, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, and the state Attorney General in the suit, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) prayed the appellate court to set aside the judgment of the lower court saying that the trial judge erred in law when he ruled that the legal action was caught by the limitation period.

Presenting uncontradicted evidence, Olujinmi who was assisted by Barrister Ifanyi Egwasi, argued that there was no undue delay since the appellants did not become aware of the said new regulations issued in 1995 until in 2001 when the respondents moved to apply them.

However, Counsel to the respondents, Ahmed Sardauna Obende, contended that it was the duty of pharmacists employed by the members of NAGPPE to bring to the notice of their employers such directives and/ or guidelines from time to time issued in accordance with PCN Act No 91 of 1992.

He submitted that once a statute stipulates a period within which an action should be commenced, any action taken outside the period of limitation is void.

But in their ruling, the appellate court justices including Honorable Justices Ita Mbaba, Dalhatu Adamu, and Habeeb Adewale Olumuyiwa Abiru dismissed the argument of Counsel to the respondents, Ahmed Sardauna Obende, and unanimously upheld all the four grounds of appeal and also granted all the reliefs sought by NAGPPE.