A Federal High Court in
Abuja has granted leave to a group, Kingdom Human Rights Foundation, to
commence its suit seeking an order for the arrest of the Minister of
Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, and his Science and Technology counterpart,
Mr. Ogbonnaya Onu, over recent allegations levelled against them by two
Justices of the Supreme Court.
A Human Rights group’s suit
seeking an order for the arrest of President Buhari’s ministers; Rotimi
Amaechi, and Ogbonnaya Onu, over allegations levelled against them, has been
finally granted.
The plaintiff, in its
substantive suit, asked the court to make an order of mandamus compelling the
Department of State Service and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to
“perform their statutory obligation” by immediately arresting and prosecuting
the two ministers.
The group also sought an
order of mandamus compelling President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack
both ministers “in public interest and public morality” based on allegations of
attempts to influence court decisions as recently alleged by the two Justices
of the Supreme Court.
A copy of the enrolled
order made by Justice Ahmed Mohammed on December 1, 2016, granting leave to the
plaintiff to go ahead with the suit, was made available to journalists in Abuja
on Thursday.
A plaintiff seeking an
order of mandamus under the judicial review of administrative action/inaction
procedure is required to first seek and obtain the leave of court through an ex
parte application to properly commence the suit.
Justices Sylvester Ngwuta
and Inyang Okoro, both of the Supreme Court, had accused Amaechi and Onu of
attempts to influence court decisions in some election cases between 2015 and
2016.
Ngwuta and Okoro levelled
the allegations against Amaechi and Onu in their separate letters addressed to
the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, following their
arrests alongside some other judicial officers by the DSS on allegations of
corruption between October 7 and 8, 2016.
They both claimed that that
their refusal to help the ministers was the reason their arrests were
instigated.
Ngwuta, had in his letter
alleged that Amaechi had delivered to him a purported instruction
from President Buhari
asking him to help to sway the judgments of the Supreme Court on Ekiti and
Rivers state governorship elections in favour of their party the All
Progressives Congress.
The apex court justice, who
is now being prosecuted by the Federal Government on charges of corruption,
also alleged that Onu sought his help to influence the decision of the Court of
Appeal going in favour of the Labour Party candidate in the last year’s
governorship election in Ebonyi State.
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