Minna
The sacked Chairman of Tafa local government area of Niger state, Honourable Ado Abubakar and the been charged for contempt of court over failure to obey the ruling of a Minna High Court that ordered him to stop parading himself as the winner of the All Progressives Congress(APC) primaries that brought him to office in 2015.
The court, presided over by Justice Aisha Bwari, had also in a judgement delivered on January 26, 2018, ordered the party to conclude its chairmanship candidate primaries which was declared inconclusive by its electoral committee on August 27, 2015.
The court also made an order setting aside the purported submission of the name of the embattled chairman, Ado Abubakar as the chairmanship candidate of APC for Tafa local government area in the election that was held in November 2015
“An order is hereby made restraining the 1st defendant from parading himself as the 2nd defendant’s chairmanship candidate for Tafa local government area election slated for November 2015,” the judgement read in part.
However, counsel to the plaintiff, Barrister Chris Osuagwu, said in Minna yesterday that the sacked council chairman, the APC and the Niger state Independent Electoral Commission NSIEC) had flaunted the court order as a result of which contempt of court proceeding had been instituted against the defendants.
Speaking with journalists on the interpretation of the court ruling, Osaugwu said “ordinarily, one would have expected all parties to comply with the court order which set aside the nomination of Ado Abubakar as candidate of the party in the election, but surprisingly, the 1st defendant is still arrogantly parading himself as the Tafa council chairman.”
He said office had begun court contempt processes with the service of form 48 and form 49 on the defendants to show cause, while they should not be committed to prison for disobedience of court order.
He said: “Time is of essence and it is important that the APC and other parties comply with the order. However, instead of complying with the order, the council chairman is boasting about that he will continue to stay in office while leveraging on his closeness to the state governor, Abubakar Sani Bello.
