Raymond Dokpesi, chairman DAAR
communications, and Bala Mohammed, a former minister of the federal capital
territory (FCT), have asked the federal high court in Abuja to nullify an
executive order signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Bello Mohammed, a former
ambassador, is also a plaintiff in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1012/2018.
Apart from the president,
Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), is a defendant in
the suit.
In July, Buhari issued executive
order No.6 restraining owners of assets under probe from carrying out further
transactions on such properties.
Dokpesi and Mohammed have pending
corruption cases in court.
In the originating summons filed
at the court, the plaintiffs asked the court to nullify the order on the
grounds that it constitutes a “negation” of the presumption of innocence of the
plaintiffs until proven guilty by due process of law, as guaranteed by the
constitution.
“An order of this honourable
court nullifying the presidential executive order No. 6 of 2018 on the ground
that the order scandalizes the plaintiffs by stigmatising them as corrupt and
labeling their assets as proceeds of corruption liable to forfeiture,” read a
document prepared by their lawyers.
“An order of this honourable
court nullifying the presidential executive order No. 6 of 2018 on the ground
that it constitutes a violation of the rule against self-help in that the
president purports to take action detrimental to the plaintiffs in respect of
assets subject of pending litigation between the government and the plaintiffs
and in effect to deem the plaintiffs guilty of whatever offences charged
against them.
“An order of this honourable
court nullifying the presidential executive order No. 6 of 2018 on the ground
that the said order does not help the cause of justice, peace, order and good
government same being founded on bias, malice and ill-will.
“An order of this honourable
court restraining the defendants, their agents, assigns, representatives,
privies or howsoever called from implementing or giving effect to the
provisions of the presidential executive order No. 6, same being
unconstitutional, null and void.”
The plaintiffs argued that the
order is a breach of the separation of powers principle under the constitution.
The summons are supported with a
13-paragraph affidavit signed by Dokpesi and dated September 18.
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com