by Ranti Joseph
Former Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, on Wednesday has asked the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mukhtar, to probe the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta, for allegedly stalling delivery of judgment in a case challenging his impeachment in July 2014.
Nyako through his lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, and his media aide, Ahmad Sajoh, in Abuja accused Auta of seizing the case file to stop the delivery of judgment in the case which is before Bilikisu Aliyu of a Federal High Court in Yola.
Ogunbeje said Aliyu heard all parties in the suit on February 2, 2015 and adjourned till February 12 for judgment, only for Auta to seize the file before the judgment day.
But the Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court, Rosemary Oghoghorie, has insisted that the case file was not seized but that the Chief Judge only called for it to clear a petition dated February 3, 2014 written to his office by a party in the suit. “Until the petition is treated, the file will not be released. The judge handling the case has not responded to the petition and until that is done; the case file will not be released. That is the right procedure to follow,” Oghoghorie said.
She added that another twist had been introduced into the case with a stay of proceedings granted by the Court of Appeal in Yola on Tuesday. “The stay of proceedings supersedes everything. So even if the CJ releases the file today, he cannot ask the judge to go on. But I want to tell you that the CJ has not seized the file, he has not interfered with the case,” she added.
The former governor had in November filed the fundamental rights enforcement suit alleging that he was denied fair hearing in the proceedings of the impeachment panel which recommended his removal from office to the state House of Assembly in July 2014.
“On the day the judgment was to be delivered, the judge was not around. No prior information that the court would not sit and no new date was fixed. We got information that it was the CJ that called for the file. As we speak to you the file remains with the CJ. Whose interest is he protecting? We want Auta to tell the whole world why he has not sent the file back to Federal High Court, Yola,” Ogungbeje said.
He called on both the CJN and the NJC to intervene in the case. “We call on the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the NJC to urgently step into this case and caution the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court,” he added.
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