Federal court dismisses El-Rufai’s objection, okays his trial at state court
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nasir El-Rufai must face charges for allegedly stealing N423 billion public funds while he was Kaduna Governor (2015-2023), the Kaduna Federal High Court has ruled, dismissing his suit seeking to set aside the report of a committee of the state House of Assembly, among other reliefs.
The ruling was delivered on July 30 but a Certified True Copy (CTC) was only made available at the weekend, wherein Justice R. M. Aikawa held El-Rufai failed to prove any of the circumstances that would warrant setting aside the proceedings of the state High Court.
El-Rufai had approached the federal court seeking an order to set aside the proceedings of July 18 for lack of jurisdiction and non-compliance with subsisting laws and rules.
He also sought an order fixing a date for the hearing of all pending applications.
However, the court ruled his reasons for requesting an adjournment were not justified, and therefore, dismissed the application for lacking merit.
The court also dismissed the application for the Judge to recuse himself, citing a lack of cogent reasons or facts for the court to do so, as established by a plethora of decided cases.
The court declined jurisdiction on the grounds of subject matter jurisdiction.
It exercised its powers under Section 22(2) of the Federal High Court Act and transferred the suit to the Kaduna State Chief Judge for determination by the High Court of Kaduna State.
“In the present case, the applicant hinges his application on the decision of the court to proceed with the hearing of the matter even though he was absent and despite his letter to the registrar of the court requesting for adjournment. Counsel thinks that he was denied a fair hearing.
“The reasons why the matter proceeded even with the absence of counsel are available in the records of the court,” the Judge ruled.
“In summary, the court was not satisfied with the reasons given in the request for adjournment and instead deemed the applicant’s processes as adopted as allowed by order 12 rule 3 of the FREPR.
“Adjournment is not for the asking. It has to be justified, and it is entirely at the discretion of the judge to grant or refuse. In the present case, the court exercised its discretion to refuse because there was no justifiable reason why it should be allowed.
“It is my view that the applicant has not been able to prove any of the circumstances listed in Bello’s case, supra as well as other cases. The application is therefore lacking in merit. It is accordingly dismissed.”
The suit, marked FHC/KD/CS/55/2024, was filed against the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the Attorney General of Kaduna State, per reporting by The PUNCH.
The first respondent was represented by both Femi Falana, SAN and Sani Katu, SAN; the Kaduna AG by Sule Shuaibu, SAN and Kaduna Assembly by Jummai Danazumi.
The court had adjourned for hearing to July 17 the suit instituted by El-Rufai who in June urged the court to quash the report of the state Assembly indicting him for N423 billion theft.
El-Rufai, in the suit filed by his lawyer, Abdulhakeem Mustaphan, argued the Assembly breached his right to a fair hearing by not inviting him in the course of the probe.
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