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Court throws out AGF Malami’s application against Senate

Published

8 years ago

January 10, 2018

The Federal High Court, Abuja, has dismissed an ex-parte application the attorney-general of the federation brought to stop the Senate probing the recall of Abdulrasheed Maina.

The ex-pension task force chief on the run after being declared wanted by the EFCC over the billions mismanaged between 2012 and 2014.

AGF Abubakar Malami in the application—which excludes other parties to the suit—contended that the Senate lack the powers to proceed with its investigation into Mr. Maina’s recall by the executive arm of government.

He asked the court to stop the Senate from carrying on with the ongoing probe into the reinstatement of the fugitive.

The National Assembly began its probe into the circumstances that resulted in Maina’s recall by President Muhammadu Buhari administration in October, 2017.

Since November, Malami has been appearing before the probe panel instituted by the upper chamber of the National Assembly where he denied giving the directives for Maina’s recall.

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The Senate investihation so far has left Malami struggling to confirm he gave the directive as he kept begging for time to check his records—though all the correspondence resented originated from his office.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita’s submission alsorevealed the memos came from the AGF office.

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The Senate subsequently on November, 23 requested more time to study additional information at its disposal.

There were media reports on Monday that Malami approached the court to stop the ongoing investigation.

According to the application filed before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court Abuja, the attorney-general submitted that the Senate cannot constitute itself into, ”a court that tries the executive arm over the discharge of its duties.”

“The plaintiff as the chief law officer and minister of justice of the federation is bound to ensure compliance by the Federal Government of Nigeria and or any of its cognate organs/agencies with the express or implied contents of extant judgements and orders of competent courts in Nigeria.