A factional Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Safiyyanu Bala, has been arraigned before a Magistrates’ Court in Birnin Kebbi over alleged contempt of court.
Bala, a chairman of the ADC loyal to the former Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami’s faction, was dragged to the Chief Magistrates’ Court by another chairman of the same party, Abdulrazak Abubakar, for disobeying a High Court order restraining all parties to maintain status quo in the matter before it.
It could be recalled that,the High Court had also ordered the defendant to stop p as parading himself as the State Chairman of the party.
The matter is before Magistrate Abubakar Abdullahi Koko and Magistrate A’isha Abdulmumin of the Chief Magistrates’ Court I, Birnin Kebbi.
At the sitting on Monday evening, Counsel to the complainant, Garba Abubakar-Shehu, informed the court that the defendant, in spite of being properly served the court summons, evaded service by the court’s bailiff.
He said the defendant refused to appear before the court until he was arrested on Sunday and arraigned before the court.
Shehu said: “The case was filed due to disobedience of a High Court order restraining all parties in the matter from relocating the party’s secretariat to another place pending the determination of the matter before it.”
However, Counsel to the defendant, Ahmad Abubakar-Fingilla, denied that his client was properly served by the court bailiff.
He informed the court that one Issa Guluma called his client twice when he was away in Abuja and when he returned, he called the bailiff but was told that the court summons had expired and the summons had been returned to the court registrar.
Fingilla also challenged the jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court over the matter, which he said was also before the High Court in Birnin Kebbi, arguing that entertaining criminal and civil cases concurrently would amount to abuse of judicial process.
He urged the court to recuse itself from entertaining the case since the same matter “is before the High Court in the state.”
Counsel to the claimant, Shehu, urged the court to discountenance the defendant’s claims, saying that the defendant could not claim ignorance of the court case filed against him.
He added that having the same matter with different consequences before different courts could not be described as abuse of judicial process.
He cited section 105(3) and 121(1c) of the Kebbi Criminal Justice Administration Law to justify that the Chief Magistrates’ Court had jurisdiction over the matter.
Shehu told the court that civil and criminal cases could run concurrently, citing Nwabusi & Others v. FG as published in the 2018 Law Reports, saying the outcomes could differ.
Magistrates Abubakar Abdullahi-Koko who read the Court rulung, declared that the defendant had been duly notified through telephone conversations, which the defendant cannot deny.
“It is our view that the defendant cannot deny knowledge of the case in court. Therefore, the service was properly effected. We hereby uphold the prayer of the claimant.”
The court, however, adjourned the sitting till Tuesday, April 21, by 3 p.m. for ruling on jurisdiction and ordered the defendant to be remanded in police custody.
