When Supreme Court judge struck out my case for absence of parties while I was in court – Alajo

Yahaya Abdulrasheed Alajo, is an Ilorin based legal practitioner who graduated from the University of Ilorin in 2006. Called to the Nigerian Bar in 2007, the former Publicity and Assistant Secretary of Ilorin NBA served at the secretariat of Miga Local Government Area of Jigawa State as Legal officer in 2008 and worked briefly with the law firm of Sa’ad & Co at Yoruba Road, Ilorin before he joined Dayo Akinlaja & Co. and rose to the position of Head of Chambers (H.O.C). In 2014, he together with a colleague set up Alajo & Associates where he is a Principal Partner. In this interview with ACTING EDITOR, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM, he shares his most dramatic experience in court so far. Excerpts:
One of my dramatic moments in court was in 2012 when I appeared before the Supreme Court of Nigeria unled for the first time. I was to be led by a senior colleague in the case but unfortunately, the fellow was not in town and I was expected to appear on my own. When I got to court in the morning, I wrote my name in the counsel cause list as counsel for the respondent. When the matter was called, counsel to the appellant had just stepped out. While I was waiting for the court to call for counsel appearances, the counsel to the appellant also came in and I told him that the case had been called but the court was yet to call for appearances. Suddenly, we just heard the court reading their ruling striking out our pending applications for absence of parties and their lawyers in court and for lack of diligent prosecution. We quickly stood up and informed the court that we have been in the court since morning and we were just waiting for court to call for appearances and that was why we didn’t stand up. The most embarrassing part was when the court said we did not even write our names in the counsel cause list to indicate that parties are represented by counsel. I informed court that I did write my name on the cause list which I actually did but when they asked they could not find in any of the list where my name was written. I felt so embarrassed that day.