The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in a matter involving the former acting Director, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Mohammed Dauda, and NIA.
In the suit marked: CA/A/1037/2018, NIA is the appellant, while Ambassador Mohammed Dauda is the respondent.
Recall that the National Industrial Court had earlier ordered the immediate reinstatement of the dismissed former acting director of the agency, Ambassador Mohammed Dauda into the service as substantive director.
In the suit, marked NICN/ABJ/136/2018, Dauda joined the Director-General and NIA as first and second defendants respectively.
The Abuja division of the court in its judgment by Justice Olufunke Anuwe also awarded a cost of N1 million in favour of Dauda as damages.
Not satisfied with the verdicts, the Federal government had in 2020 appealed the reinstatement of the embattled former acting NIA DG.
Subsequently, a three-man panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal, Abuja division headed by Justice Muktar Husseini okayed the application of the NIA to appeal the judgment.
But at the the resume hearing recently, NIA through its lawyer, Adewale Adesokan, SAN, asked the appellate court to allow the appeal because the appellant did not explore the internal mechanism to resolve the dispute before he proceeded to the National Industrial Court.
The NIA lawyer asked the court to dismiss the appeal, saying that it was an abuse of the court process.
But Dauda’s counsel, Uchenna Njoku, who had earlier raised a preliminary objection, also prayed the appellate court to allow the appeal, arguing that his client did not abuse the court process.
He told the court that five years down the line, the appeal committee set up by the appellant (NIA) had not done anything on the matter.
Leading a three-man panel of Judges, Justice Justice P. O. Ige, reserved judgment in the matter. Other justices are; Justice O. E. Williams-Dawodu, and Justice D. Z. Senchi.
Also, in the case marked: CA/A/1003/2018, where Dauda is a cross-applicant, while NIA is a cross-appellant, the court also reserved judgment in the suit.
NIA in a motion dated 1st of March 2023 prayed the court to set aside its earlier judgment delivered on March 20, 2020, arguing that no leave to appeal was obtained.
But Dauda’s counsel, Njoku, through the leave of the court to regularize his cross-counter affidavit filed on March 22, 2023, which the court granted.
The NIA it will be recalled criticized allegations by a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi (SAN), that it was making efforts to arrest its former Acting Director-General, Mohammed Dauda.
The organization in a letter by its lawyer, Adesokan said as a a agency that believed in the sanctity of the rule of law, it would not subscribe to arbitrariness, as alleged by Agabi in his letter dated January 11 2022.
Countering further, Agabi, who is the former AGF and Dauda’s counsel had appeal to AGF Abubakar Malami, warning against actions that could compromise the hearing of alleged unlawful dismissal of Dauda and any act either by itself or through any of its sister agencies to arrest, attempting to arrest or by whatsoever means compromise the personal liberty of his client on account of the appeals and or matters connected thereto.
Dauda’s unlawful dismissal this medium learnt is primarily a fundamental human rights enforcement case, which has taken close to five years and yet to be dispensed with.
