Sen. Abdul’aziz Yari was not permitted to be detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as of Monday while the motion on notice was being heard and decided.
In addition to issuing the order, Justice Donatus Okorowo barred the Department of State Services, or DSS, from holding the senator-elect in custody in a decision he rendered on an ex-parte application brought by Michael Aondoaaa on behalf of Yari.
In light of this, Justice Okorowo ordered the respondents (EFCC, ICPC, and DSS) to provide justification at the next adjourned date as to why the prayers requested in the motion ex-parte should not be granted.
He decided that the respondents couldn’t hold the applicant until the return date for the order to show reason.
The issue was then postponed until June 8 so that the respondents may provide justification.
The ex-governor of Zamfara, Yari, reportedly filed the ex-parte petition with the following designation: FHC/ANJ/CS/785/23 via his legal team, which also included Abdul Kohol but was headed by Mr. Aondoaaa.
Yari sued the EFCC, ICPC, and DSS as the first through third defendants in the petition dated and submitted on June 2.
The former governor requested a court order barring the respondents and their officials from detaining or arresting him, or threatening to do so, in order to prevent him from attending the Federal Republic of Nigeria President’s June 13 proclamation of the 10th Senate.
Yari claimed that he wanted to challenge the presidency of the Senate of the 10th National Assembly in accordance with the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Senate Standing Orders 2022 (as amended), and he provided 15 reasons why the application should be approved.
He said that, regardless of their political inclinations, the general people and outstanding senators-elect had overwhelmingly supported his bid for the office of Senate President.
He claimed that some members of his political party, the APC, were alarmed by the support the applicant has continued to receive across party lines and that as a result, they have resorted to using the respondents and their agents to harass the applicant and make false arrest and detention threats in the run-up to the Senate’s First Sitting, when nominations and the election of presiding officers will take place.
“By threatening the applicant with an illegal arrest and detention, the respondents and their representatives have threatened to violate the applicant’s constitutional rights.
He declared that “the respondents and their agents are mandated to operate within the ambit of their establishment laws and to respect the fundamental human rights of the Applicant as enshrined in the Constitution.”
Yari said that the respondents would have violated his rights in the absence of the injunction.
