I have read the applicant's application dated 10 August 2023 filed under a certificate of urgency of even date. The application is hereby certified urgent and admitted for hearing during this Honourable Court's recess. I direct that the application be served to the respondents within seven days of the date of this order. The respondents have seven days to file and serve the their response to the application. The application shall be mentioned on 5 September 2023 for directions on the manner of its disposal.
I note that the applicant has asked for "leave" to operate as stay. The prayer is couched as follows:
"7.THAT the leave so granted do act as a stay of the 1st Respondent’s directive cancelling the registration of the Applicant’s New Life Prayer Centre & Church as announced in the Gazette Notice published on the 18th of August 2023"
However, nowhere in the rest of the prayers in the summons has the applicant sought for grant of leave. As far as I gather from the application, the applicant is praying for judicial review reliefs of certiorari, mandamus and prohibition though leave to file a substantive motion for these orders has neither been sought nor granted. In short, as much as the court would have been disposed to grant the order for stay, the prayer for the order is grounded on a non-existent premise. For this reason, the prayer of stay is refused. Orders accordingly.