A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, fixed February 10 for the hearing of a suit seeking to stop the Nigeria Police Force and the Attorney-General of the Federation from arresting and extraditing a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari.
Justice Donatus Okorowo fixed the date following the absence of the plaintiff, the Incorporated Trustees of the Northern Peace Foundation and the two defendants, the NPF and the AGF, in court.
Although the suit was slated for mention before a new judge, Justice Okorowo, none of the parties showed up in court and were also not represented by legal practitioners.
Shortly after the suit was called and no lawyer announced appearance for the applicant and the respondents, the judge inquired from the court registrar who the plaintiff was and he was told Kayode Ajulo.
The judge said since the case was transferred to his court, the respondents had not been served as there was no proof of service in the court records.
According to him, it is either the applicant has lost interest in the matter or has abandoned it.
Justice Okorowo, however, said since the matter was coming for the first time before him, he would prefer to give the applicant till February 10 to be in court to prosecute the suit.
He, therefore, ordered that a hearing notice be served on the applicant.
The ITNPF had through its team of lawyers, led by Ajulo, on August 19, 2021 argued an ex parte application asking the court to stop any planned arrest or extradition of Kyari to the United States of America by the defendants pending the hearing and final determination of the substantive suit.
However, after carefully listening to the lawyer, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, who was handling the suit at the time, refused to grant the request to stop Kyari’s arrest and extradition through ex parte means.
Kyari was indicted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations in an alleged multi-million naira fraud said to have been perpetrated by a Nigerian citizen, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi.
Copyright PUNCH.
