Court orders IGP to produce INEC chairman Yakubu

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris, has been ordered by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to produce the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu in court.

The court, presided over by Justice Stephen Pam, handed down the order on Wednesday, saying the police boss must bring Prof Yakubu to court on August 14.

The order is consequent on an arrest issued by Justice Pam for the police to arrest the INEC chairman and bring him to court in a contempt of court case the INEC boss has pending against him at the court.

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Justice Stephen Pam gave the order after Yakubu’s counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, claimed he did not know his whereabout, adding that the bench warrant he issued on August 1 for Yakubu’s arrest still subsists.

“The IGP is hereby ordered to enforce it by bringing him to court on the next adjourned date”, the judge ordered while adjourning the case till August 14 for continuation of committal proceedings.

Mr Awomolo had told the court that the defendant had a pending petition before the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adamu Abdu-Kafarati, for the case to be transferred to another judge.

Awomolo also asked for an adjournment on the strength of the petition.

However, counsel to the plaintiff, Gordy Uche, opposed the application for adjournment, insisting that though Awomolo has pettitioned the Chief Judge seeking the disqualification of Justice Pam, the letter was not copied to him or the judge as he has only just informing the court.

Meanwhile, the INEC boss on Wednesday alleged that Justice Pam is determined to send him to prison without recourse to rule of law.
He stated this in a petition he sent to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati, asking him to disqualify Justice Pam who issued the arrest warrant on him.

The INEC boss, in the petition he filed through Chief Awomolo (SAN), alleged that the trial judge exhibited bias tendencies against him by issuing a bench warrant for his arrest when condition precedents for the issuance of such order was not fulfilled.

In addition, he alleged that Justice Pam has personalised the contempt charge that was initiated against him by the Anambra State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by insisting that he must appear in court despite a motion challenging the competence of the proceeding before him.

He, however, prayed the CJ to, in the interest of fair hearing, transfer the matter to another judge for hearing.

After informing the court of the petition, he prayed the court to adjourn the matter pending when the CJ will take action.

According to Yakubu, “The learned trial judge erred in law when he descended into the arena of conflict when he argued the case of the respondents without opportunity of hearing given to the appellants or their counsel before striking out the motion asking for adjournment of further hearing of the alleged contempt proceedings,” the appellate added.

More so, he argued that the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, which the judge relied on, were not referred to by any of the counsel in the matter, thereby violating “the rights of the appellants preserved by Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.”

 

 

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