Maina insists on N1.5bn compensation for ‘psychological trauma’
The embattled former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr.
Abdulrasheed Maina, has pressed his case before a Federal High Court,
Abuja, to order the Senate and the Inspector General of Police to pay
him N1.5bn as compensation for the “trauma and psychological pain” they
allegedly caused him and his family.
Maina, who is reportedly on the run, had dragged the Senate, the
Senate President, the Clerk of the Senate, the Senate Committee on
Establishment and Public Service, the Senate Committee State and Local
Government Administration, the Inspector General of Police, Senator
Aloysius Etuk (The Senate Committee on Establishment and Public
Service), and Senator Kabiru Gaya (of Senate Committee on State and
Local Government Administration), before the Abuja FHC presided by
Justice Adamu Bello to enforce his fundamental human rights and also set
aside the warrant of arrest issued against him by the Senate on
February 2, 2013.
When the matter came up for adoption as written addresses on
Wednesday, Maina’s counsel, M. A. Magaji, SAN, asked the court to
dismiss the preliminary objections of the respondents and go ahead to
award the N1.5bn damages in favour of his client.
In response to the respondents’ argument that the resolution of the
decision of the Senate, directing Maina’s immediate arrest and
detention, was not served on the Attorney-General of the Federation, as
required by Order 10 of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Rules 2009,
Magaji maintained that section 122(2) (c) of the Evidence Act “states
that the court can take judicial notice of proceedings of the National
Assembly.”
“I urge you to discountenance their counter affidavit and order them
to pay my client (Maina) the sum of N1.5bn for the trauma and
psychological pain they have subjected him and his family to,” Magaji
said.
Earlier, counsel for the Senate, Mr. Ken Ikonne, had asked the court
to dismiss Maina’s application on the grounds that it did not comply
with the procedure of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Rules 2009,
under which it was filed.
He said, “All the exhibits being relied upon by the applicant both in
the main affidavit and further affidavit are uncertified copies of
public documents.”
Counsel for the IGP, T. A. Ngoso, also opposed the suit.
She asked the court to dismiss the application in its entirety.
Justice Bello adjourned the matter to March 21, 2013, to rule on the preliminary objections.
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