PLOT TO ELEVATE SACKED MAGISTRATE EXPOSED

In spite of the national outcry that trailed the controversial demotion of some serving and dead policemen by the Police Service Commission, the bug appears to be heading to the National Judicial Institute (NJI) where the management has concluded plans to elevate a sacked magistrate.

Our investigation reveals that one Bala Haruna whose appointment as an Assistant Chief Registrar was terminated by the Judicial Service Committee (JSC) of the Federal Capital Territory on July 28, 2004 may be appointed a Director anytime from now in the NJI.

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The Former Magistrate has been standing trial since February 2006 before an FCT High Court on three count charge of dishonest misappropriation of money, criminal breach of trust and conversion.

The arraignment of the sacked magistrate by the police was sequel to the conclusion of investigations of a petition to the Inspector General of Police by the four wives and heirs to one late Alhaji Sani Yela Yabo over alleged sale of one of his houses in Kubwa, Abuja by Bala Haruna and his refusal to hand over the proceeds from the sale to the family despite several entreaties from late Yabo’s family.

In the petition dated 3rd January, 2006 and captioned “Complain of criminal breach of trust, cheating and issuance of dud cheque..” the family also alleged that Bala, who is a friend of their deceased husband, only paid them N2million out of the N4.5milliom he sold the house and also“misappropriated the sum of N170,000” he collected as rent from the deceased property since 2004.

Our findings further revealed that to pave way for the possible appointment of the sacked  former magistrate as a Director by the NJI, pressure was brought to bear on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, by some powerful individuals including serving Judge in the Supreme court and a former Chief Judge of the FCT who are close friends of the father-in-law of Bala, late Justice Maidama.

Consequently, the Minister on 5th August, 2008 signed a letter authorizing one Muhammad Saidu Diri to halt the continued trial of Bala by the FCT High court.

The letter captioned “Authorisation under Section 174 of the constitution federal republic of Nigeria” read “In exercise of the powers conferred upon the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, I Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, hereby authorize Muhammad  Saidu Diri to exercise on my behalf the powers conferred upon me as Attorney-General of the federation by section 174(1)(c) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 with particular reference to the cases of: 1. The state vs Alhaji Bala Haruna”.

Diri, who is a Special Assistant to the Minister and the first prosecutor in the trial of Bala consequently filed a Motion on Notice on Tuesday, 16th September, 2008 asking for an order of the court “withdrawing all the charges and other papers filed before this honourable court against the Respondent/Accused person (Alhaji Bala Haruna) in respect of offences of dishonest misappropriation, criminal breach of trust and conversion contrary to section 315 of the penal code”.

The application was supported by a ten paragraph affidavit deposed by one Okora Neji Jonah, a Clerk in the office of the Attorney-General of the federation.

In one of the paragraph the deponent averred that “it is in the best interest of justice to withdraw the charges against the respondent/accused person’.

When our Reporter met Muhammad Diri in his office he declared that the Minister decided to withdraw the case as the wives of the late Yabo who are the prosecution witnesses have not been regular in court leading to several adjournments.

Diri further disclosed that they gathered from the grapevine that the accused person has paid some of the money he criminally converted to his personal use adding that there were several monies he allegedly converted but he is not in position to say which money he paid back to the family.

However, the family of the late Yabo insist that though the accused person made effort to off-set the debt after his arraignment, a sum of N500,000 is still outstanding.

A sibling of the wife of late Alhaji Yabo, Shehu Yabo, told our correspondent that after Bala paid the money to them he told them that the balance N500,000 will be paid to them as soon as the title documents of the property are perfected to enable the buyer of the property take full possession of the house.

The Counsel to Bala, S.C.Peters denied the claim of the Yabo family and maintained that Bala is innocent of all the allegations against him as the entire transaction that led to the petition is illegal ab-initio as the titled documents of the sold house are questionable.

He also accused those alleging that his client cheated the family as grievous liars.

His words,” No, that is not true, that is grievous lie. He was never owing any kobo. The truth is that people are mischievous.  But I think that whatever money somebody pays somebody people should be able to say the truth before God and man.

“The truth is that the money belongs to Engineer Mohammed (the Buyer), that money was returned to Engineer Mohammed”.

Peters further explained that the four wives of Late Yabo came to him and pleaded to him to intercede for them and beg  the buyer on their behalf which led to his signing an undertaking on their behalf.

According to Peters the title documents of the sold property is behind the face-off between the Yabo family and his client.

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“The title documents are in doubt and Mohammed is saying that the house they sold to him was fake and that is another problem. So, you will discover that they just punish Bala for nothing. Mohammed is even trying to see if he could recover the other money he paid to them because he believes the house sold to him is fake”.

He attributed the travails of the embattled former magistrate to power play as a result of his penchant for petition writing against his superiors.

“I think it is power play and I don’t want to comment on that. Bala just suffered for nothing. I know that he petitions people anyhow, so people have to deal with him but the whole thing was unjust and I nearly cried for him and this country”.

While declaring ignorance on the plot to appoint Bala a Director in NJI, Peters said the withdrawal of the criminal charges was due to a petition they sent to the government with all the relevant documents on the case.

Sources at the NJI who spoke on condition of anonymity declared that the plot to make the sacked Magistrate a Director at the Institute is already causing ripples and the bubble will likely burst whenever the appointment is made.

“We know the former Administrator was under pressure to engage him but the criminal trial slowed them down because they don’t want to be seen as rewarding an alleged felon.  You can be sure that we will not take it lightly because we have staff here that are qualified to occupy any office they want to give him because of his godfathers on top.

“We know his appointment at the FCT Judiciary was terminated sometimes in March 2005 because of serious misconducts, disrespect to constituted authorities, insubordination and unauthorized disclosure of official information and we wonder what manner of precedent they want to set by elevating a sacked Magistrate to A Director in such a sensitive Institute”.