By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
A Senior Councillor in the Sultanate Council of Sokoto, Alhaji Hassan Danbaba, has appealed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, to wade into an alleged perversion of justice by a judge of the Sokoto state Sharia Court, Justice Umar Sifawa.
In a petition addressed to the CJN, on March 24, Danbaba, a grandson to the late premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, said Justice Sifawa had made a mockery of the entire Sharia Court system in Sokoto state in a matter between him and the All Progressives Congress (APC) national vice-chairman, North-west, Alhaji Umar Abdulkadir.
Danbaba, the Magajin Garin Sokoto, demanded the immediate probe of Justice Sifawa and his consequent dismissal from service for allegedly violating his oath of office by acting in a bias and prejudicial manner.
The petition was pre-empted by Justice Sifawa’s decision on Friday, last week, to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of Danbaba while ruling on a motion filed by Abdulkadir who dragged Danbaba to court for alleged defamation of character.
Abdulkadir had, in the suit, accused Danbaba of describing his late father as “a slave bought by one Gwaggo, for two shillings” and that he did not take adequate care of his late mother in a publication in August, 2016.
Danbaba, in the petition filed on his behalf by his counsel, Mr. Yusuf Dankofa, and also addressed to the Grand Khadi Sokoto state, asserted that he was wrongfully served a criminal summons through a proxy to appear the Sokoto Upper Area Sharia Court to answer to some allegations levelled against him by Abdulkadir.
He said: “Upon our client instruction, we filed a notice of appeal in the criminal appeal section of the High court of Justice Sokoto to further challenge certain acts of gross irregularities of the lower courts and we joined the court as second respondent and all the respondents were subsequently served.
“On the 22 of March, we further filed a stay of proceedings in the lower courts pending appeal and the return date for the arguments on all pending applications was 30 March 2017.”
