Attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Mr Abubakar Malami SAN, has been dragged before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, over abuse of office.
Also dragged before the court alongside the minister is a civil servant, a staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Ms Asabe Waziri, who is said to be at the centre of the case, which the AGF is accused of bias in its prosecution.
Asabe, a civil servant was said to have bought a property worth N130million in Maitama District of Abuja.
In the suit, filed by an international businessman and property developer, Mr Cecil Osakwe, he is praying the court for an order of N1billion damages against the AGF.
Osakwe, through his lawyer, Mr Victor Giwa, said his reputation has been damaged through the actions and decisions of the AGF in a civil case between two individuals.
Osakwe sued Malami in his personal and official capacity for abuse of his office, as minister of justice, when he preferred charges against him, and used the charge as a tool to blackmail and arm-twist him to give out two units of three-bedroom flats in one of his properties at Mekong close Maitama, Abuja to Asabe Waziri, even against valid court order.
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Giwa also claimed that the attorney-general used his office to supervise the continuous harassment of Osakwe, by men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on matters that are purely civil with respect to the sales of the property.
According to him, his client brought the action against the AGF both in his official and personal capacities, claiming that Malami acted with malice, and abused his office in raising charge of “collecting money under false pretence’’ from Asabe Waziri, when he was fully aware that Asabe Waziri moved into the property and lived in the said property for over eight months before she was eventually vacated from the property by a lawful court order that terminated the sales transaction between both parties.
Asabe Waziri and Cecil Osakwe have been in a fierce battle over the control of two units of three-bedroom flats which were sold to Asabe Waziri by Abeh Signature Ltd, a company owned by Cecil Osakwe.