Senate to appeal court ruling on Maina’s arrest
APRIL 1, 2013
former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina
The Senate has said it will appeal the court ruling restraining the upper chamber of the National Assembly and the Inspector General of Police from arresting the erstwhile Chairman of the Pensions Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina.
Leader of the Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba(SAN), told our correspondent on Sunday that the Senate had reached the decision to challenge the judgment at a superior court.
He said, “Since we are certainly appealing the judgment, I need say no more.”
President of the Senate, David Mark, had in December last year, issued a warrant of arrest on Maina, directing the Inspector General Police to arrest him and bring him before the Senate to answer questions on his role in the management of pension funds.
Although the IGP, Mohammed Abubakar, had informed the Senate that Maina was on the run, his counsel approached an Abuja high court seeking the quashing of the arrest order.
The judge, Adamu Bello, in his ruling, on Wednesday, last week, agreed that the President of the Senate and indeed the National Assembly had the powers under Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution to summon anyone, but noted that the warrant of arrest did not follow laid down procedure.
He said the arrest warrant should have been published in any gazette of the Federal Government to have effect.
Justice Bello did not only set aside the arrest warrant, he also went further to grant an order of perpetual injunction restraining the IG and the Senate from arresting Maina.
Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, who is also a lawyer, said it was his view that the judge was wrong in setting aside the warrant of arrest, since the Senate acted based on Section 89 of the Constitution.
“Now that the judgment has been given, what should the Senate do? I believe that the Senate should appeal the judgment, but must seek to follow the procedure the judge said was not followed,” he said.
According to him, because the process of appeal could take a longer time, there would be need to comply with the judge’s prescription in order to ensure that the culprit does not go around freely in the face of damning allegations of fraud against him.
He said, “The Senate should take both lines of action; that is appeal the judgment, but quickly consider following the procedure that the judge said was not followed.”
No comments:
Post a Comment