Aso Rock, Presidential Villa officials on Friday barred a bailiff from the Federal High Court from serving Hanan Buhari with court processes, The PUNCH has reports.
Hanan, who is daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari, has been sued alongside the Department of State Services and MTN for N500m by a trader, Anthony Okolie, who was detained for 10 weeks for allegedly using a SIM card previously owned by Hanan. Okolie’s lawyer, Tope Akinyode, said when the court bailiff attempted to serve Hanan with the court processes, he was informed at the Villa that Hanan was a private citizen and could not be served there.
Akinyode, who is also the National President of Revolutionary Lawyer’s Forum, told Saturday PUNCH, “Aso Villa officials refused to receive court processes on behalf of Hanan Buhari from the Federal High Court bailiff today.
“They told the court bailiff that they were working for the President and not his daughter. “We are not surprised by this loser antics, but it is an inglorious display of inconsistency that the same Hanan Buhari who misuses presidential privileges to fly in a presidential jet now finds it hard to accept court processes at the Villa. We shall apply to court for substituted service.”
The case, which is before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of a Federal High Court, Asaba, comes up on February 12. The suit is seeking an order to “compel the respondents jointly or severally to pay the applicant the sum of N500,000,000 only as general and aggravated damages for the gross and unlawful violation of the applicant’s right to acquire moveable properties, freedom of movement and self-dignity.” The 33-year-old man said in a supporting affidavit that he was arrested on July 19, 2019 in Asaba, Delta State, for using a telephone line that was previously owned by Hanan. According to him, he was handcuffed in custody till September 22, 2019 as the DSS waited for Hanan, who was schooling in the United Kingdom, to come and clear him but she never did. Okolie also attached the receipt he was issued after purchasing the SIM card as well as the SIM certificate.
The applicant stated that he explained to the DSS how he bought the SIM card but he was informed that that the phone line which is linked to the SIM card was once used by Hanan. “They thereafter labelled me a criminal for using a phone line that previously belonged to the 2nd respondent,” he said. Okolie alleged that because of the personality involved, his case file was tagged, ‘first family’ and he was denied access to his lawyers. The trader claimed that his mother, who was not allowed to see him, developed high blood pressure while he lost a N5m business deal.
However, the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, told Saturday
PUNCH that Hanan’s lawyer would be available to receive the court processes. He
said, “You can tell the lawyer of the applicant or the bailiff to call Hanan’s
lawyer or send the lawyer’s number to me. We will get the documents across to
her.”
