April 26, (THEWILL) – A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, dismissed a suit by the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Yakubu Umar, seeking to stop the Senate from probing him over an alleged assault on one Clement Sargwak.
Sargwak, a security guard at Banex Plaza in Abuja, had alleged that he was assaulted by the CCT Chairman and a policeman attached to him in March 2021, at the popular Banex plaza Abuja, where he worked as a security guard.
According to Sargwak, the CCT boss assaulted him while undergoing his lawful activities after he informed him that his car was wrongly parked.
Sargwak, therefore, asked the Senate to ensure justice is done over his case.
But the CCT Chairman, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/ 671/2021, had challenged the powers of the Senate to investigate him in an alleged assault perpetrated against a security guard at Banex Plaza in Abuja.
In the suit filed by his lawyer, Sunday Edward, Umar asked the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Senate, its members and agents from conducting or continuing to conduct investigations into the allegations of assault levelled against him via a petition submitted to the Senate.
Specifically, Umar asked the court to determine whether the alleged case of assault which took place at Banex Plaza in Abuja on March 29, 2021, formed part of the matters the Senate is constitutionally empowered to investigate.
He also asked it to determine whether the Senate and its Committee on Ethics and Public Petitions are competent to investigate or invite him in relation to the investigation of the allegation of assault brought against him and whether the powers of the Senate to conduct the investigation are not governed or subject to the provision of sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.
Umar, therefore, asked the court to declare that the purported case of assault that took place on March 29, 2021, did not form part of the matters the Senate is constitutionally empowered to investigate.
Umar further asked the court to declare that the Senate’s moves to conduct an investigation in the matter were unconstitutional and it amounts to unwarranted usurpation of the functions of the police and of the court of competent jurisdiction.
He, therefore, asked for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Senate, its members, and agents from conducting or continuing to conduct investigations into the allegations of assault leveled against him via a petition submitted to the Senate.
The four defendants in the matter are the Senate, Senate President, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions; and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
Delivering Judgement on Umar’s application on Tuesday, Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgement in the suit, ordered the CCT boss to go and appear before the Senate and answer questions on a public petition brought against him by an aggrieved citizen.
The Court held that as a public officer administering law, he is answerable to the Senate on moral standards.
The judge held that his case seeking to stop the probe by the Senate lacked merit and was dismissed.
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