Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday challenged the jurisdiction of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to entertain a plagiarism suit instituted against him by Prof Victor Dike, a Nigerian lecturer in the United States of America.

In a preliminary objection filed by his lawyer, Kola Awodein (SAN), Sanusi is challenging the territorial jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit.

He also contended that plagiarism was not within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Federal High Court and that the matter was not justiceable.

The apex bank governor also contended that Dike lacked the statutory locus standi to maintain the action.

He further argued that the suit was not competent for reason of non disclosure of a right of action or a cause of action against him.

When the matter came up yesterday, Dike’s lawyer, Mr. Esan Itua, opposed the representation of the CBN governor by Mr. Austin Irabor, whom he accused of failing to file and serve him a memorandum of appearance before serving him with Sanusi’s preliminary objection against the plagiarism suit.

He said: “I am opposing the appearance of Mr. Austin Irabor, in this matter. When a party is to defend a suit, by rule, he is required to file a memorandum of appearance. He is not proper before the court as we were only served a preliminary objection but no memorandum of appearance. We are not shutting him out my lord, only for him to come properly before the court.”

Sanusi's lawyer apologised for his failure over the memorandum of appearance and informed the court that he was merely holding brief of Awodein, who was unavoidably absent from court.

The court also refused to recognise two staff of the apex bank that showed up in court and stood up on behalf of the CBN Governor when the case was announced.

The trial judge, Justice Adamu Bello told the bank’s officials that they could not appear on behalf of Sanusi since he was sued in his personal capacity and not as the bank boss.

Dike, an Adjunct Professor at the School of Engineering and Technology, National University, Sacremento, US, in a statement of claims said that Sanusi breached his copy rights on two different occasions on November 26, 2010 and December 10, 2010 when he presented lectures.

The first occasion was at a lecture he delivered at the 8th Convocation Ceremony of Igbinedion University in Okada, Edo State, on the 26th November 2010, where Sanusi presented a paper titled ‘Growth Prospects for the Nigerian Economy’.

The second occasion was on December 10, 2010 at the Convocation Square, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi where Sanusi presented a paper titled 'Global Financial Meltdown and the Reforms in the Nigerian Banking Sector'.

The plaintiff who is also the Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Centre for Social Justice and Human Development in California, US, said that Sanusi copied verbatim from these two articles without referring to him as the original author.

He gave the name of the articles from which Sanusi copied from as , 'Review of the Challenges Facing the Nigerian Economy: Is National Development Possible without Technological Capability?', ‘Global Economic Crisis and Power of Productivity’ and the ‘Governance and Nigeria’s Weak Institutions: Is the 2020 Project Achievable.’

The plaintiff averred that Sanusi copied from pages 98,99 and 100 of his work titled, 'Review of the Challenges Facing the Nigerian Economy: Is National Development Possible Without Technological Capability?'

He stated the copied lines as follows: "the challenges facing the economy is in-effictive institutions and dilapidated infrastructure (bad roads, erratic power supply, limited access to potable water and basic healthcare, and in-effective regulatory agencies, etc). The plethora of reforms and policies are in-effective due to institutional failure (Hoff, 2003)".

The plaintiff alleged that Sanusi also copied verbatim articles originally written and published by him without acknowledging him as the author of the works from where he (Sanusi) sourced the materials that made up his lectures.

He said that the articles wherein Sanusi used his works were still at the CBN website.

He alleged that the CBN Governor was in breach of the Copyright Act when he copied his materials without acknowledging him as the original author of the works.

In the ‘Governance and Nigeria’s Weak Institutions: Is the 2020 Project Achievable’ the plaintiff said that Sanusi copied about four pages [/b]and [b]presented them as his own in the lecture he delivered at the Igbinedion University Eight Convocation Ceremony.

It is the further averment of the plaintiff that from his work titled, ‘Nigeria: Reform Efforts and the Unresolved Socio-Economic Problems, Sanusi also copied works that formed pages 22-28 of the lecture he delivered at the Igbenedion University.

He asked the CBN Governor to produce the two lectures he delivered for the use of the court.

He said that he wrote to the CBN Governor informing him of the infractions and that Sanusi replied that he acknowledged one “Victor E.D.” in one of the lectures.

But the plaintiff said he told him that more than four of his works were recklessly copied by him (Sanusi) and asked him to stop further copying of his work and requested him to tender an unreserved apology but that Sanusi did not offer any such apology.

The plaintiff said he caused another letter to be written to Sanusi and that four months later the Legal Department of the CBN wrote to him denying the alleged plagiarism by Sanusi but however apologised to him for wrongly citing one of his article as E.D. Victor instead of Victor E. Dike.

The plaintiff said that his articles and publications were no longer valued by his readers and colleagues after the discovery by his readers that some opinion he expressed were also contained verbatim in another person’s work who claims the authorship.
The plaintiff said that he had lost a great deal of royalties since the incidence of this plagiarism came to the fore, as the journal that looked forward to his articles had become sceptical about accepting articles from him.

He said that unless Sanusi was made to retract those lines copied from his work, and adequately compensate him for the breach of his copy rights, his readers and indeed the whole world will no longer take his opinions serious as same will be seen as not original.

Source:http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/plagiarism-sanusi-challenges-court-s-jurisdiction/117050/

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Boko Haram in CBN, is a rigid square peg in a round hole.

This is a good one. It is usually not easy to wriggle out of a plagiarism case because the evidence is easily available. Except of course Sanusi is able to prove that Dike himself plagiarized another person. For now, he's just relying on mere technicalities.

Interesting I have always suspected that the guy ripping off other peoples work without referencing them? lol

sanusi is right. he should not succomb to mere threat

He's just making it worse for himself.

If the Nigerian Federal Court system doesn't have a "territorial jurisdiction", then which court does? Did his objection state the court that does? It's time to know because I really want to hear the outcome of this. SLS, the secret copy cat, is in deep sh/it, now he's fighting a loose cause.

Dike, should seek financial/moral support from his followers. Let him go on TV/Radio/Internet campaign that SLS is a rogue. I'm sure, negative advertising will surely do the required damage, which will make him succumb.

I have said before that the Boko Haram (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi) has been coping verbatim from people's work for a very long time. Prof. Dike should make sure to pursue his case to a logical conclusion.Foolish Aboki.

Only God knows where he copied his useless banking reforms from.This copy-copy has shipwrecked the banking industry in Nigeria and it will take over ten years for the industry to recover.Methink he copied from Yemen,or Pakistan.

Scam bot...this is totally infringment of copyright policy n liable to 21yrs inprisonment....why do dey stop us from yahoo when ds dude Bokoharam broda dey do him own yahoo 4mat to get fame..

the man wan use sanusi make name 4 himself?

Its appalling that the so called objection emanated from an SAN, its either he didn't look at it before it was filed or he did look at it and adjudged it worthy of filing.

He mentioned that plagiarism does not come under matters the federal high court has jurisdiction over. It begs the question on the true definition of plagiarism. If plagiarism is the same thing as infringement of copyright and the copyright act specifically confers exclusive jurisdiction on the federal high court to entertain matters relating to copyright infringement, then i wonder why the learned SAN would choose to differentiate or distinguish plagiarism from copyright when in fact plagiarism is a form of copyright infringement as it relates to literary works.

they should waste the precious time of the court.

If you want to criticize Sanusi please do but using slogans like Aboki etc is highly inappropriate and very very ethnocentric.

@ Op

Sanusi should have appeared, he would only make matters worse

free reading for sanusi:

They 'll settle out of court and the matter will die naturally.

For some time the protagonist will feel the negative impacts of his acts.

but of cause he would have learnt his lessons and then will continue governing the apex bank and fresh matters arising will overtake the old.

@Ebamma,my friend use your head. There is a case of plagiarism here and you are reasoning like a motor-park boy. Do you really understand what is being discussed here? Think b4 you utter anything.

This prince of kano wahala sef too much... E be like say the shoulder path wei dey inside that saudi arabia suit wei him dey wear don make am dey do yanga yanga... So all the robbish wei e come dey teach us sef na copy him dey copy.... Dike or though na nonsense prince of kano dey teach us, but make sure say u collect ur money...

alj harem: If you want to criticize Sanusi please do but using slogans like Aboki etc is highly inappropriate and very very ethnocentric.

@ Op

Sanusi should have appeared, he would only make matters worse

I think so too. Only a true Nigerian can point this out.

ebamma: the man wan use sanusi make name 4 himself?

Are you in blatant disregard of the specificity of the professor's claim's? He is a professor in faraway United States remember? If he was just seeking fame with a law suit then I think it would have made the rounds if he had filed it in a US court and hinted CNN (and all bodies that have ever given SLS an award) about it.

The matter is subjudice now...so let us watch and wait. Surely, someone has got it wrong and someone else has got it right. There are no stalemates in the law court.

This is very unfortunate for mr sanusi. However he still remains innocent for now except if found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction

tantan: sanusi is right. he should not succomb to mere threat

you are swimming against the tide. I am forced here to hold my tongue, but your view is just a weighty flop.

ebamma: the man wan use sanusi make name 4 himself?

fools sure abound on nL.

blacksam: @Ebamma,my friend use your head. There is a case of plagiarism here and you are reasoning like a motor-park boy. Do you really understand what is being discussed here? Think b4 you utter anything.

there are touts on nL naa,so you don't know before,just see how a human reasons,na wa oh!

LMAO,here was I thinking of someone to match this guy using wits in a negative way, not knowing he was copying all the while,this will be a relief to so many,atleast now they have something on him,no wonder he said he was not el rufai's mental match,if this man really wants to he can nail sanusi with this,but then the Nigerian judiciary has a lot of magician judges,let's just keep fingers and see how this one goes

Hmmm! So all this yl this almajeree, d mime people grammar! I don see y him reforms na voodoo reforms! He is copying and not implementing the actual thing! Yawa dan gaz for this aboki! Wahala dey! Ltr nw him go come stand d talk for teeth like say na only him go school! Na person grammar him go cram finish d come blast for tv!

neoAhitopel: free reading for sanusi:
They 'll settle out of court and the matter will die naturally....

I may be wrong, but I feel this won't just die off. It's an academic stunt aimed @ his eventual (forced) resignation or absolute discreditation per se. An ''ace'' well kept for nearly two years. Now it has been played, and for whatever purpose intended...it's skewing positively.

It may be a warning to SLS to desist from purported ambition, else more damning cases (with evidence) may emerge.

Funny nigerians, if na GEJ dem they dey insult pple go dey vex but hv no prblm caling sls names. All those don't insult GEJ won't think twice in insulting d president if na aboki . This just wat we are simple.
Obviously SLS has a case to answer, both parties hv made their point, d case is in court, till dn I go wait for d outcome

la furia: Funny nigerians, if na GEJ dem they dey insult pple go dey vex but hv no prblm caling sls names. All those don't insult GEJ won't think twice in insulting d president if na aboki . This just wat we are simple.
Obviously SLS has a case to answer, both parties hv made their point, d case is in court, till dn I go wait for d outcome

na ur uncle?

I for one don't like the CBN governor for anything!

its funny but d mallam should come out n have a say.i think it will serve as an experience n lesson 4all puffed up public officials and sec who do not want 2invest in research

akpanbaba: Only God knows where he copied his useless banking reforms from.This copy-copy has shipwrecked the banking industry in Nigeria and it will take over ten years for the industry to recover.Methink he copied from Yemen,or Pakistan.

what is this case about

Stealing of interlectual pRoperty. He must be made a scape goat. Sharia theologian.

In academics SLS is in for the BIG ONE