N423b probe: El-Rufai seeks transfer of case

Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has taken Justice R.M Aikawa of the Federal High Court sitting in the state capital to the Chief Judge (CJ) of the Federal High Court for alleged bias.

In a petition, El-Rufai urged the FHC CJ to reassign his from Justice Aikawa to another judge.

El-Rufai file a suit in June to challenge the probe report of the Kaduna State House of Assembly which indicted him for alleged misappropriation of N423 billion public fund.

In the fundamental rights case he filed against the Kaduna Assembly before the court, the former governor asked the court to declare the Assembly’s report as null and void for violating his right to a fair hearing as guaranteed under the Constitution of Nigeria.

Justice Aikawa yesterday adjourned ruling on the case after hearing from the respondents who submitted their preliminary and substantive objections to the court, in the absence of El-Rufai’s counsel, Abdulhakeem Mustapha.

Unhappy with the ruling without his presence, El-Rufai, in his petition to the FHC CJ, demanded the transfer of the case to another judge in the interest of justice and a fair hearing

Source: The Nation