El-Rufai accuses judge of bias, seeks transfer of suit against Kaduna assembly

Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, has asked John Tsoho, the chief judge of the federal high court, to reassign his fundamental human rights case to another judge.

In June, el-Rufai sued the Kaduna house of assembly over the allegation that his administration diverted N423 billion when he was the governor of the state.

The former governor, through Abdulhakeem Mustapha, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed the fundamental rights suit at the federal high court in Kaduna.

The matter came up for a hearing on July 8 but was adjourned after proceedings to July 17 by agreement of counsel.

However, according to a letter signed by Adetayo Adeyemo and addressed to the chief judge, the court did not sit on July 17.

“On the said 17th of July 2024, our principal, A.U. Mustapha, SAN, appeared in court with S.S. Umoru, Esq., and Habib Dauda, Esq., having arrived from Lagos a day earlier, but we were informed that the court would not sit. As a result, he proceeded back to Lagos,” the letter reads.

Adeyemo said they later got information that the court would sit on July 18.

“In view of this extremely short time, we caused a letter of adjournment to be written and filed in court. The said letter was filed and served on the court and all the counsel in the matter,” he said.

Nevertheless, Adeyemo said R.M. Aikawa, the presiding judge, went ahead to hear the suit on Thursday, allowing the respondents to adopt and adumbrate their processes.

“The action of the presiding judge to hear the matter without the attendance and appearance of the applicant smacks of extreme bias, injustice, and denial of a fair hearing against the applicant for a lot of reasons,” he said.

“The applicant was not put on notice for the proceedings of 18th of July, 2024 as expressly explained in the letter of adjournment. We only got a whiff of the hearing on the night of 17th of July which is an extremely short time for us to appear in court.

“Service of hearing notice in a matter is sacrosanct, and our courts have held severally that every party must be put on notice before his case can be heard, and this was done without putting the applicants’ counsel on notice.

“Equally important is the fact that the applicant was not given an opportunity to respond to the 1st respondent’s counter-affidavit and written address.

“The 1st respondent filed his processes out of time and followed same up with an application for an extension of time. Thus, it is elementary that the applicant’s time to respond to the processes would begin to count upon the grant of the application for an extension of time.

“In view of the foregoing, we humbly apply for a transfer of this matter from the trial court presided over by honourable justice R.M. Aikawa, whereby the relevant applications can be heard as the applicant has lost confidence in the judge to continue to hear and determine the matter. Justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done.

“Having expressly refused to put the applicant on notice before hearing the matter and proceeding to hear the same when the applicant was still within time to respond to the 1st respondent’s application, the average man on the street could see which way the judge is headed.”

In April, the Kaduna assembly inaugurated a 13-member committee to examine the loans, grants, and project implementation in the state during el-Rufai’s tenure.

The lawmakers said most of the loans obtained and projects implemented did not follow the “due process”.

They also called for the prosecution of some of the commissioners and officials who worked under el-Rufai.