A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, to put the Inspector General of Police on notice to come and defend himself why he should not be committed to prison for disobeying court order.
In the suit against the IG, Tambuwal, through his counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who led eight other SANs and 69 lawyers had brought an ex parte application praying the court to order the Inspector General of Police to appear in person to show why he should not be committed to prison for disobeying the order of court which earlier directed that the status quo be maintained.
The plaintiff alleged that the IG against the order of the court on November 20 denied Tambuwal access to the National Assembly to perform his official functions.
He further submitted that the IG on November 26 while appearing before the house committee on police affairs refused to recognise Tambuwal as the speaker of the House of Representatives.
He however noted that President Goodluck Jonathan had on three different occasions through different correspondences recognised Tambuwal as the speaker contrary to the actions of the IG.
Delivering a short ruling, the trial judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed asked the plaintiff to put the IG on notice and at the same time serve him with all the applications.
The court premised the ruling on the ground that the IG was already a party in the pending suit and as such joined issues.
The court consequently fixed December 3 for hearing of the suit.
The court also fixed December 1 to determine whether five persons who applied to join as co-defendants in the suit filed by Tambuwal were eligible to do so.
In the subsisting suit, the chairmen of Nembe and Tambuwal Local Government Councils in Sokoto State, Bala Konkani and Sambo Bello Modo respectively, through their counsel, O.I Olorundare SAN brought a motion for joinder as co-defendants.
Also, three members of the Sokoto Sate House of Assembly, Abdulsamad Ibrahim Dasuki (Tambuwal East constituency), Suleiman Hanse (Tambuwal West Constituency) and Shuaib Umar ( Nembe constituency) through their counsel, Moyo Onigbanjo SAN brought application to be joined as co-defendants.
Other defendants in the suit did not oppose the application for joinder.
After listening to all parties in the suit, the court fixed December 1 for ruling.
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