‘Judge was misled’ — court reverses order to arrest customs officer in Kano

The Kano state upper Shari’ah court has overturned an order it gave on Thursday for the arrest of one Yusuf Ismail Mai Biscuit, an officer of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

On Thursday, the court ordered the arrest of Mai Biscuit over his refusal to honour the court’s summons after one Abdullahi Aliyu filed a suit alleging that he threatened to eject him from his property in Nassarawa LGA of the state.

Garba Malafa, the presiding judge, had ordered the police to arrest Mai Biscuit.

In another order issued by the court on Friday, the initial order was withdrawn immediately following the explanation of Sani Idris, the defence counsel, who “established that even though his client was not personally served the summon, he was in the court.”

Idris said the judge was misled as he was in court to represent his client on the issue while the judge conducted the court affairs in his chamber.

“We were in the courtroom expecting the court to sit; but to our surprise, the session was held in the judge’s chamber and the judge was given the impression that we were not around,” the lawyer said.

“My client is a highly responsible and complete gentleman hence his instruction for me to represent him in court even though he was not personally served the court summon.’’