Court Issues Fresh Order on El-Rufai vs Kaduna Assembly

• The suit filed by Nasir El-Rufai against the Kaduna State House of Assembly has gotten a favourable verdict at the Court of Appeal
• This comes as the appellate court ordered a fresh hearing of the suit at the Federal High Court in Kaduna
• The Court of Appeal, in the judgment marked CA/K/240/2024, held that the hearings at the trial court were not valid

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The Court of Appeal has set aside the ruling of the Federal High Court in Kaduna in the suit filed by the immediate past governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, against the State House of Assembly.

In the appellate judgment marked by CA/K/240/2024, the Court of Appeal held that the hearings at the trial court were not valid because of the breach of the rights of the former governor to a fair hearing.

Nasir El-Rufai: Appeal court orders fresh hearing

The Cable reported that the appellate court found that the lower court sat on July 18, 2024, without any evidence that El-Rufai was served with a hearing notice. Thus, he was being denied the chance to participate in the proceedings.

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The court also held that the former governor was not given the opportunity to respond to the counter-affidavit by the respondents, saying such omission was a violation of due process.

As a result of the findings, the Court of Appeal nullified the rulings by Justice Rilwanu Aikawa of the Federal High Court on July 30, 2024, and set them aside over what it described as a lack of jurisdiction. It was ordered that the case should be returned to the Federal High Court and be reassigned to another judge.

El-Rufai: Nigerians react as appeal court rules

The case, which was shared on social media by Muyiwa Adekeye, the media adviser to the former governor, has started generating reactions from Nigerians. Below are some of their comments:

Yusuf Tukur, PhD, projected victory for El-Rufai in the case:

"They know that all their accusations against El-Rufai @elrufai are a bunch of lies. So, they try to rig and abuse the system. I’ve never seen where an accused person will be pushing to be arraigned, but the accuser is refusing to charge them. They know Malam has clean records!"

Ado Aliu commended the Court of Appeal judgment:

"Commendable decision by the Court of Appeal. Due process matters. Now the real question: will courts dealing with ICPC/EFCC cases apply this same standard of fairness? Or is consistency too much to ask?"

Ahmed praised the former governor:

"One of my favourite characters and traits of Mallam is his true belief in the Nigerian justice system. He always tries to tender his matter to the courts, and it's refreshing to see someone still having hope in such a system. I remembered the cashless case versus the FG."

Moses Ghereje faulted the former governor:

"But he was the same person who approached the court to stop the house from probing him. Now he has to make himself available in order for the fair hearing to be achieved."

You can read more comments on X here:

El-Rufai's gadgets: Court grants ICPC permission

Legit.ng earlier reported that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has granted permission to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to access and analyse the electronic gadgets recovered at the residence of the immediate past governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai.

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, who presided over the matter, gave the order on Thursday, March 12, after the commission filed an ex parte motion on the matter.

Proofreading by James Ojo, copy editor at Legit.ng.