The Chief Justice of
Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has okayed an investigation into
a petition accusing a Chief Magistrate in Abuja, Mr. Abubakar
Babashani, of deliberately frustrating moves to commence hearing on the
perjury charge entered against the Presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (ret).
Already, the CJN has directed the magistrate to immediately file his
response to the petition entitled “Case of Abuse of Office and Manifest
Bias by His Worship, Abubakar Babashani, in The Criminal Complaint by
Shield Jones Ufot & Ors. Vs. Muhammed Buhari.”
Reacting to the
petition, the CJN via a letter with Ref. No. CJN/MAN/B9/S.1/VOL.VI/389,
which was signed by his Senior Special Assistant, Mrs. Hadiza Sa’eed,
said he would give due consideration to all the allegations that were
raised against the magistrate in the complaint letter dated February 4,
2015.
Specifically, four activists, Shield Jones Ufot, Jimmy David,
Ogueri Enwerem and Tochukwu Okorie, had in a direct criminal complaint
they filed before the Abuja Chief Magistrate Court, accused Buhari of
violating section157 of the Penal Code.
In the suit they filed
pursuant to sections 143 (d) and 152 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the
plaintiffs alleged that the APC presidential flag bearer placed
reliance on a bogus certificate to depose an affidavit before a
competent court, an action they said amounted to perjury and punishable
under section 158 of the Penal Code Law.
Meantime, the plaintiffs in
the petition they filed through their lawyer, Mr. Ugochukwu Ezekiel,
told the CJN that after filing the criminal complaint and paying all the
necessary fees, they alleged that Chief Magistrate Babashani “refused
to give directives as required of him by law either for the Police to
investigate and report back to the court, assign the matter to another
Magistrate or proceed to hear the matter.”
According to them, “On
several occasions when we enquired at the registry of the court, we were
informed that his worship was not on seat to attend to our file. We
approached his worship earlier today to seek explanation for his refusal
to make the necessary directives.
“At first, his worship informed
us that he got directives from the Honourable Chief Judge of the Federal
Capital Territory not to hear our matter but when we sought to know in
what form the directive cane, his worship further informed us that he
will not sit on our matter because a revenue collector’s reciept was not
attached to the file and he will not accept Aso Bank’s teller as
evidence of payment for filing the suit.
“The FCT High Court has not
issued a revenue receipt to any litigant as evidence of payment for
filing any process in the court but accepted Aso Bank’s teller as
evidence of payment for any process filed in the court both in the High
Court and the Magistrate Court and it is not the fault of the
litigant(s) that the court does not have any receipt to issue to
him/them.
“We are equally aware of many cases filed in the Chief
Magistrate Court which were heard and some are still being heard by his
worship, Abubakar Babashani.
“Upon refusal of his worship to carry
out his judicial duties, out clients made further enquiries at the
revenue department both at the Magistrate Court and the FCT High Court
and we were informed that the court is yet to print receipts for cases
filed in court and only use tellers as evidence of payment for filing a
suit.
“Considering the above stated facts, out clients are led to
believe that his Worship is intentionally refusing to hear our clients’
matter in order to frustrate our clients from pursuing justice, giving
flimsy excuses in so doing.
“Our clients are equally convinced that
his Worship is already biased and has shown manifest bias as to the
content of our complaint. We therefore call upon you to use your good
offices to do or cause to be done the following: (a) Direct the transfer
of the case from his worship, Abubakar Babashani to any other
magistrate of the FCT Magistrate Court competent to hear the matter.
“(b) Investigate the allegations contained in this petition with a view
to meting out adequate punishment to his Worship if found culpable.
“Our clients strongly believe in the pursuit of justice and matters
filed before a court should be given fair and unbiased hearing which the
actions of his Worship does not depict in this instance.
“My Lord,
we therefore kindly request that the case file on this matter be
withdrawn from his Worship, Chief Magistrate Babashani and be
re-assigned to any other Magistrate of the Magistrate Court of the FCT
for hearing.”
Source: Vanguard