The
embattled former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr.
Abdulrasheed Maina, has pressed his case before a Federal High Court,
Abuja, to order the Senate and the Inspector General of Police to pay
him N1.5bn as compensation for the “trauma and psychological pain” they
allegedly caused him and his family.
Maina, who is reportedly on the run, had
dragged the Senate, the Senate President, the Clerk of the Senate, the
Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, the Senate
Committee State and Local Government Administration, the Inspector
General of Police, Senator Aloysius Etuk (The Senate Committee on
Establishment and Public Service), and Senator Kabiru Gaya (of Senate
Committee on State and Local Government Administration), before the
Abuja FHC presided by Justice Adamu Bello to enforce his fundamental
human rights and also set aside the warrant of arrest issued against him
by the Senate on February 2, 2013.
When the matter came up for adoption as
written addresses on Wednesday, Maina’s counsel, M. A. Magaji, SAN,
asked the court to dismiss the preliminary objections of the respondents
and go ahead to award the N1.5bn damages in favour of his client.
In response to the respondents’ argument
that the resolution of the decision of the Senate, directing Maina’s
immediate arrest and detention, was not served on the Attorney-General
of the Federation, as required by Order 10 of the Fundamental Rights
Enforcement Rules 2009, Magaji maintained that section 122(2) (c) of the
Evidence Act “states that the court can take judicial notice of
proceedings of the National Assembly.”
“I urge you to discountenance their
counter affidavit and order them to pay my client (Maina) the sum of
N1.5bn for the trauma and psychological pain they have subjected him and
his family to,” Magaji said.
Earlier, counsel for the Senate, Mr. Ken
Ikonne, had asked the court to dismiss Maina’s application on the
grounds that it did not comply with the procedure of the Fundamental
Rights Enforcement Rules 2009, under which it was filed.
He said, “All the exhibits being relied
upon by the applicant both in the main affidavit and further affidavit
are uncertified copies of public documents.”
Counsel for the IGP, T. A. Ngoso, also opposed the suit.
She asked the court to dismiss the application in its entirety.
Justice Bello adjourned the matter to March 21, 2013, to rule on the preliminary objections.
PUNCH
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