The FCT High Court in Abuja has barred Pauline Tallen, the former Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, from holding public office in Nigeria.
Politics Nigeria remembers that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the previous general election, Aishatu Dahiru (popularly known as Binani), was declared ineligible by the Federal High Court in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State.
Tallen, an APC chieftain and former deputy governor of Plateau State, responded to the verdict by saying it “represented the marginalisation of women in Nigerian politics.”
Tallen’s words prompted NBA president Yakubu Maikyau (SAN) to demand an apology and threaten to sue her.
Tallen did not apologise for her remarks.
On Monday, December 18, the court branded Tallen’s comments as “unconstitutional, careless, reckless, and disparaging.”
Tallen’s statements over a Federal High Court verdict in Adamawa State last year were denounced by the High Court.
The court ruled that the former minister’s demand to defy the court’s decision was “contemptuous of the Federal High Court of Nigeria.”
Tallen, on the other hand, was given the opportunity of avoiding the penalties of her irresponsible words, provided she apologised in two national dailies within 30 days.
The court also issued an order barring Dame Pauline Tallen (the defendant) from holding any public office in Nigeria “unless she purges herself of the ignoble conduct by publishing a personally signed apology letter to Nigerians and the Judiciary on a full page of the Punch and Guardian newspapers.”
The Court issued an injunction prohibiting the defendant from holding public office in Nigeria that “shall become perpetual if she fails to abide by the order directing her to publish an apology letter within 30 days.”
