The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ruled in favour of Mamuda Beverages Nigeria Limited to first hear its preliminary objection to the suit filed against it by Rite Foods Limited before any other application in the matter.

In a ruling delivered on the 25th of April, 2025, Justice Emeka Nwite held that due to its decisive nature, the application challenging jurisdiction filed by Mamuda Beverages Nigeria Limited takes precedence over Rite Food Limited’s Motion Exparte. Thus, the Court would hear and determine it before taking any further step in the matter.

Rite Foods Limited approached the Court via Writ of Summons filed in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/705/2025 to contest the production of Pop Power Energy Drinks over allegations that the drink has striking resemblance with one of its products.

The company through its lawyer, Booneyamen Lawal, SAN filed alongside the Writ, a Motion Exparte seeking preservative orders pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit filed by it against the defendant, Mamuda Beverages Nigeria Limited.

The Motion Exparte was slated for hearing on 23rd of April, 2025. However, the defendant got wind of the application and swiftly filed through its lawyer, O.E.B Offiong, SAN, a preliminary objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

In its preliminary objection, the defendant complained that Rite Foods Limited had on 28th January, 2025, filed a similar suit over the same issue and between the same parties which has already been decided by the court. It was stated that while not conceding to the allegations levied against it by Rite Foods Limited, Mamuda Beverages Nigeria Limited opted for settlement which was adopted by both parties and entered as consent judgment by the Federal High Court on 4th March, 2025. And that despite the consent judgment, the Plaintiff proceeded to file the instant suit against it, submitting that it amounts to abuse of court process, which robs the court of jurisdiction to entertain it. The defendant further communicated its concern to the plaintiff through a letter written on the defendant’s behalf by Aliyu & Musa Legal Practitioners & Consultants on 17th April, 2025.

On the said hearing date, Booneyamen Lawal, SAN led a team of lawyers in representing Rite Foods Limited, while O.E.B Offfiong appeared as lead Counsel on behalf Mamuda Beverages Nigeria Limited in company of 4 Senior Advocates of Nigeria and lawyers.

After announcing his appearance, Mr. Offiong drew the court’s attention to the preliminary objection filed on behalf of Mamuda Beverages Nigeria Limited, submitting that the court was bound to hear and determine it first, as it affects the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit.

Mr. Booneyamen disagreed with Mr. Offion’s position, submitting that the business of the day was hearing of the plaintiff’s Motion Exparte and that the defendant ought not be heard owing to the nature of a Motion Exparte which precludes service on a defendant or an appearance by such defendant.. He urged the court to proceed with the hearing of the plaintiff’s Motion Exparte.

Following lengthy arguments by both senior Counsel, the Court adjourned to 25th of April, 2025 for ruling on the application to be first heard by the Court.

The Court on 25th April, 2025, ruled in favour of the defendant, Mamuda Beverages Nigeria Limited, agreed with the position of its Counsel, Mr. Offiong, and held that owing to its decisive nature, the defendant’s preliminary objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the suit has to be heard first before any other application in the matter.

In effect, the court held that the defendant’s preliminary objection takes precedence over the plaintiff’s Motion Exparte seeking preservatory orders.

The court finally adjourned the matter to 28th of May, 2025 for hearing of the defendant’s notice of preliminary objection.

Air Peace says it will resume flight operations on Friday following the suspension of strike by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMeT, workers.

This was contained in a statement by the airline’s Head of Corporate Communications, Ejike Ndiulo, on Thursday night in Lagos.

Ndiulo expressed Air Peace’s gratitude to its customers and the general public  for patience, understanding and  support throughout the period of the strike.

”Your resilience and trust in our brand mean the world to us.

“We commend the active and decisive intervention of the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), whose leadership and commitment were pivotal in resolving the impasse and restoring normalcy within the aviation industry,” Ndiulo said.

He noted the minister’s swift engagement with aviation stakeholders, his transparent approach and his dedication to the stability and progress of the aviation sector.

Head of Corporate Communications further stated that Keyamo’s efforts not only facilitated timely resolution of the industrial dispute but also underscored his broader vision for a safer, more efficient and investor-friendly Nigerian aviation industry.

Ndiulo said Air Peace was committed to providing safe, reliable and world-class services.

Ekwutosblog reports that NiMeT workers on Thursday suspended the strike which began on April 22 after the minister’s intervention.

The workers downed tools in protest of alleged poor working conditions, including non-implementation of the 2019 Consequential Adjustment to the National Minimum Wage (affecting at least 30  staff).

They are also demanding a 25/35 per cent salary increase, 40 per cent hardship/peculiar allowance, and  annual staff trainings.

The minister had promised to find lasting solutions to the problems.

A Melbourne cleaning company director has lost out on thousands of dollars after using artificial intelligence to help write a series of emails.

The business boss had hoped to improve his firm’s productivity, but one mistake alone cost it more than $2000 when he failed to pick up on the blunder.

End of Lease Cleaning Melbourne director Michael had introduced a generative AI tool to speed up the time it would take for his team to respond to customer emails.

Rather than have employees type out individual lists of cleaning services, they would input information such as the type of service required and let the tool do the rest.

The AI-powered tool would then generate an email that included the services, their costs and a job quote for each customer.

But the tool produced several emails with mistakes which were not picked up by the cleaning company’s employees.

‘We lost quite a lot of money,’ Michael told 9news.au.

The AI tool mistakenly listed different services to the ones required without changing the quotes to reflect the higher prices.

A cleaning company director lost out on over $2,000 after an AI tool to write emails (stock)

Michael and his team were forced to provide full wall cleans, priced between $500 to $700 for the price of a spot wall clean which is significantly lower.

The company’s most-costly mistake involved the director using the AI tool to generate a quote for property that required a deep clean worth around $2,000.

Michael read over the generated email but failed to spot several mistakes within the correspondence.

He didn’t spot the errors until a week later, by which time it was too late to correct them as the customer had signed up to a different company.

After the $2,000 mistake, End of Lease Cleaning Melbourne’s employees no longer use AI for business correspondence.

The response time for returning customers’ emails has now returned to five hours, the time it had previously taken prior to introducing the AI tool.

‘If you are using AI, you definitely need to read everything two to three times before you send that email,’ he added.

Almost half of all Australians use generative AI, according to a survey Google conducted with IPSOS in January.

According to a survey, around 65 percent of Australian workers said their employer had introduced AI in the workplace (stock)

Out of that 50 percent, almost 75 percent of those report using it for work.

In a separate survey carried out by HR platform Workday, around 65 percent of Australian workers stated their employer had introduced AI in the workplace.

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