From Bilal Sani, Bauchi
A judge of the chief magistrate court 12, Bauchi, Hajiya Safiya M. Salihu on Wednesday issued a warrant of arrest against five top management staff of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi.
The staff are the Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Dr SI Ningi, Deputy Dean Faculty of Management Sciences, Dr Umar Usman, Director, General Studies (GNS) Faculty of Management Sciences, Dr Babangida Yerima, Head of Department (Draft) Faculty of Management, Dr YB Maiwada and Head of Department (DMTT) Faculty of Management of the university, Dr Tijjani Abubakar, respectively.
Neptune Prime reports that the arrest warrants were issued against the university top management staff for contempt of court after they failed to appear before the court on Wednesday 17th January 2017 to respond to the suit instituted by their colleague, one Dr Idris Isyaku Abdullahi, for allegedly defaming him in a petition letter they allegedly wrote and submitted to the Vice Chancellor of the institution sometime on 19th June, 2017.
According to the suit document issued to our correspondent by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Barrister Nasara Joshua, the accused persons wrote in the said letter that his client brought an unknown persons into campus and pointed out some staff whom ‘he considers enemies to the individual’ .
The document also states that the accused persons further alleged in the petition that the complainant has pronounced how he intended to eliminate ‘his enemies and propagated campaign of calumny on some staff and the faculty as a whole’.
”We therefore crave the indulgence of this honourable court under section 78 of the penal code to cause the accused persons to pay the sum of five million Naira (5,000,000) for defamation of character and a public apology in one of the national dailies and a media house within the state capital”.
It was gathered that after the failure of the accused university staff to appear before the magistrate, the judge issued arrest warrants on the five defendants and also ordered their remand until 24th January for continuation of hearing over the case.
Our correspondent however reports that counsel to the defendants, Barrister SD Idrees told the magistrate that his clients have lost confidence on her to be impartial which led to the transfer of the case to another Magistrate court number four, Federal Low Cost, Bauchi.
Meanwhile, the defendents also secured a restraining order from Bauchi State High Court 5 which stopped the police from arresting and remanding them as ordered by the lower court.
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