Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Monday, dismissed an application filed by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Army, Ali Ndume, seeking an order to discharge him as a surety for the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, who is standing trial for alleged fraud.
The judge held that Ndume’s application amounted to an abuse of court process, having filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal, Abuja, on the same matter.
Maina, who was released from the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja in July 2020, jumped bail a few months later.
He was released after Ndume agreed to stand as his surety.
The lawmaker used the title documents of his property in Abuja worth N500 million as a bail bond in compliance with the conditions attached to the defendant’s bail.
Maina was rearrested in the Niger Republic on December 1 last year and produced in court three days later.
At Monday’s proceeding, Justice Abang, who said he had considered the arguments of both parties in the suit, held that he has no jurisdiction to entertain the Ndume’s application dated December 15, 2020.
He said: “Where an appeal has been filed, every application will be made before the Court of Appeal.
“Therefore, any issue can only be entertained by the Court of Appeal.”
The judge said the fact that Maina was rearrested and produced in court did not mean that the court, as presently constituted, could hear the lawmaker’s motion.