By Jane Okafor, Abuja
Justice Musa Liman of the Federal High Court in Abuja has declined to entertain a motion filed by the embattled leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, seeking an order transferring him from the custody of Department of the State Services (DSS) to the National Hospital in Abuja, for urgent health care.
The Judge said his fiat to sit as a vacation judge ends today(Monday) and, therefore, lacked jurisdiction to open such a fresh matter for hearing.
Consequently, he ordered that the case file be returned to the registry for the Chief Judge to reassign it to another judge.
While the proceedings lasted, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, appeared for the Federal Government, Uchenna Njoku, SAN, announced himself as the appearance counsel for the IPOB leader.
At the mentioning of the case, Kanu’s lawyer informed the court that the motion by his client was filed on September 1 while a counter affidavit of 37 paragraphs opposing the transfer request was served on him by government in the open court.
The senior lawyer said that he had not read the counter affidavit for him to respond.
He, therefore, applied for an adjournment to enable him respond to the counter affidavit as the vacation of the judge had come to an end.
On his part, Awomolo, SAN did not object to the adjournment request and that he would be ready to be in court anytime, anyway, when a new date is taken.
In a brief ruling, Justice Liman ordered that the case file be returned to the Registry for the Chief Judge to reassign the matter to another Judge.
Justice Liman said that he would make recommendation to the Chief Judge for the speedy hearing of the motion since the health of the applicant was involved.
Kanu had in the motion with charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, sought an order of the court for the DSS to move him from their custody to the National Hospital for urgent medical care.
