By John Azu<\/p>\n
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday adjourned a suit filed by a national officer of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nafiu Bala-Gombe, following the absence of counsel representing the party\u2019s national chairman, David Mark.<\/p>\n
Justice Peter Lifu had previously fixed the matter for hearing of all pending applications after he declined a request to recuse himself made by the national chairman and national secretary, Rauf Aregbesola, on June 16.<\/p>\n
However, when the case was called, Mark\u2019s counsel, Suleiman Usman (SAN), was not in court.<\/p>\n
After the matter was briefly stood down to allow for his appearance, the lawyer still failed to show up, prompting the court to adjourn the case to June 30 for further hearing.<\/p>\n
The suit had earlier generated controversy after the defendants\u2014Mark and Aregbesola\u2014filed applications seeking the judge\u2019s recusal.<\/p>\n
Ruling on the application, Justice Lifu dismissed the requests, describing them as lacking merit. He also rejected allegations of bias, impartiality, and prejudice levelled against him.<\/p>\n
According to him, the claims were not supported by any credible or verifiable evidence.<\/p>\n
The judge further imposed a fine of N500,000 each on Mark and Aregbesola, to be paid to the claimant, Bala-Gombe, amounting to N1 million in total.<\/p>\n
Justice Lifu held that the recusal application appeared to be a tactic aimed at delaying the accelerated hearing of the matter as directed by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
He stated that he would not be swayed by pressure from any party before him, saying he would not \u201csuccumb to blackmail, intimidation and harassment from any party appearing before him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John Azu A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday adjourned a suit filed by a national officer of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nafiu Bala-Gombe, following the absence…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n