A Kebbi State indigene seeks an Abuja High Court’s leave to compel anti-corruption bodies to investigate and prosecute ex-Governor Adamu Aliero
By Nnamdi Felix /Abuja
Trying times loom in the horizon for Senator Muhammadu Adamu Aliero. The former Kebbi State helmsman is fighting the battle of a lifetime to stave off calls, by an indigene of his state, for the investigation of his eight-year reign. Alhaji Sani Dododo, resident at Tudun Wada area of Birnin Kebbi, approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja seeking for an order of mandamus compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, to investigate Senator Aliero over allegations contained in a petition received by the anti-graft bodies on 10 August 2007 and 25 October 2007 respectively.
Dododo also called on the court to compel the EFCC and ICPC to make their findings public by publishing the result of their respective investigations. He, however, took his call a notch higher by asking the court to direct the anti-graft agencies to arrest and prosecute the former Governor where their investigations disclose that he committed any of the offences contrary to the EFCC and ICPC Acts.
The allegations contained in the petition hover around contract scams, money laundering, fraudulent encashment of negotiable instruments and financial impropriety. The figures involved in these allegations run into billions of Naira. Alhaji Dododo’s journey to the court was fraught with stumbling blocks as he wangled through the court processes to obtain the leave of the court empowering him to institute an action against the anti-corruption bodies to investigate the former governor who is currently serving his state in another capacity at the National Assembly. That the matter finally made it to court is a testimony to the resilience of the tax payer who insisted that the former governor had financial impropriety questions to answer over his tenure. The petitioner alone and in conjunction with others caused a series of petitions to be addressed to both the EFCC and ICPC. They listed various financial improprieties, outright malfeasance and embezzlement of public funds by the former governor. However, to their chagrin, the anti-graft bodies refused to carry out their statutory functions. This seeming refusal by the agencies led to the institution of the suit by the petitioner.
But Aliero is leaving no one in doubt about his preparedness to nip these calls for investigation in the bud. At the court last Wednesday, Kola Awodein, a senior advocate representing Senator Aliero, challenged the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit. Moves by Dododo’s lawyer, Mr. Victor Ekim, to get around Aliero’s opposition to the hearing of the matter by the court were also rebuffed by Awodein.
Mr. Ekim pleaded with the presiding judge, Justice Adamu Bello, to hear the substantive motion together with the preliminary objection filed by the former governor, where he is challenging the competence of the court to hear the suit. The lawyer cited a Court of Appeal decision in Nzeribe vs the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to support his argument. Any hope that this will move the court to exercise its discretion in his favour faded, as Aliero’s counsel, Awodein, reeled off Supreme Court decisions against such practice to support his position.
Awodein averred that where the issue of jurisdiction is raised, the only business the court has at that stage is to suspend all else and determine whether it has jurisdiction or not. He called on the court to take no further step in the suit until the issue of jurisdiction is settled.
According to Awodein: “The jurisdiction question raised here is very fundamental and when so considered, you will find that it is not the kind of objection that can be taken together with the substantive application and I invite you to respectfully adopt the Supreme Court decision in the circumstances of this matter because of its binding nature.”
Mr. Ekim’s efforts to persuade the court not to rely on the Supreme Court decisions cited by Awodein in the instant case, however failed as Justice Bello ruled in the former governor’s favour by suspending the substantive matter pending hearing of the preliminary objections to determine whether he has jurisdiction to hear the suit or not. The court’s ruling, no doubt, bought more time for the embattled former governor, as the court adjourned till Monday, 1 December 2008 for the adoption of written addresses on Aliero’s preliminary objection.
The temporary setback suffered by this attempt by a Kebbi State indigene to compel the anti-graft bodies to investigate the former governor’s handling of the state’s collective wealth during his tenure was indeed at the instance of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aoandoakaa and the ICPC.
The ICPC and AGF were represented in the suit as second and third respondents by Messrs Iwuagwu and Egede respectively. Both lawyers adopted the former governor’s counsel’s submissions before the court. This seamless collaboration by the lawyers with Kola Awodein was the clinching factor as Justice Bello brought the prevailing democratic ambience in the country to bear on his ruling. In the last lap of his ruling, the judge stated that the bottom line in ruling whether to take the preliminary objection first before the substantive suit or to take them together is that the court has discretion in the matter. And he exercised it in favour of the majority. Three of the parties are seeking for the former while only Sani Dododo is seeking for the latter. Dododo has, however, vowed to continue with the crusade to bring the former governor to book.
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