Forgery Allegation: Court Ruling Has Vindicated Us - Senate

A High Court in Abuja has questioned the involvement of the police and the Minister of Justice in the forgery of the Senate standing order.

Abubakar Malami

 

The Senate, yesterday, said it had been vindicated by last Thursday’s ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, which described the forgery case filed against its presiding officers as an abuse of court process and a decision taken against public interest.

 

In a statement by its spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate said the ruling by Justice Kolawole further confirmed that Mr. Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, was acting out a personal and partisan script in filing the charges, while simply abusing his position as the nation’s chief law officer.

It asked Malami to address the issue of his personal and pecuniary interest in the case as he was a counsel to the aggrieved senators who decided to externalise the issue of election of the leadership of the upper chamber of the National Assembly after they failed in their bid to get their preferred candidate elected.

 

The Senate said: “It has now become obvious from the ruling of Justice Kolawole and in the facts of the matter before the Federal High Court, Malami was the one who advised his clients to report the matter to the Police and now that he has become AGF, he decided to use his constitutional powers   to pursue private interest by filing a criminal case in the FCT High Court against the subsisting ruling of a court of co-ordinate jurisdiction."

 

When the Senate invited the AGF to come and throw light on the forgery case, it was not to challenge his right to file, take over or discontinue any criminal case but for him to explain the issues of conflict of interest, abuse of office, disrespect of a subsisting order of  a court and violation of the principle of separation of powers which are being raised against him.

 

“When his supporters jumped up and started abusing the Senate over the invitation, we know that our stance that an Attorney General, and, indeed, any public officer for whose office public funds are appropriated can be invited by the Senate and the House of Representatives to explain certain issues, is on firm, constitutional ground.

 

Source: Vanguard