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Home arrow All sections arrow Top headllines arrow FCT probe: El-Rufai didn’t consult me - Ojo
FCT probe: El-Rufai didn’t consult me - Ojo Print E-mail
Written by Abdul-Rahman Abubakar   
Saturday, 03 May 2008

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El-Rufai Nasiru
Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), said former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, never sought his advice on legal issues.

Testifying in Abuja before the Senate Committee on the FCT probing activities of past administrations, Ojo dissociated himself from the series of flouting of court orders in the demolition and eviction exercises during the el-Rufai administration.

Ojo said: "I want to say straightaway that the FCT has its own legal department headed by a Director of Legal Services. The legal department normally advises that FCT and throughout my tenure as the minister, there was no time the el-Rufai referred any matter to me for advice directly through out my tenure."

He said there were a few times he had to intervene: "A matter emanated from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ufot Ekaette. And usually, it involved matters that had become protracted and could not be settled here or there and was referred to me for legal advice. That is as far as that is concerned."

Ojo denied knowledge of any court orders disobeyed by the FCT administration at the time he was the chief legal officer of the country.

"All the court orders being mentioned, so far unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to see any of them. None of them was referred to me. I had cause when I was in office to deal with some other ministries and extra government departments. And any time a court order was drawn to my attention, I always wrote back to the relevant ministry directing that they should obey the court order. The foundation of our democracy is on the rule of law and if you don’t obey court orders, then we will have a situation of anarchy where nobody will be safe. We cannot pick or choose which court orders to obey and I made this a cardinal point," he added.

The former AGF, who is now with the Geneva International Law School at the United Nations, said he never allowed a breach of court orders, adding "throughout my tenure, the only orders served on me as Attorney General directly were obeyed and we had no course to disobey court orders."

During the series of evictions and demolition exercises in Abuja under Malam el-Rufai, several Nigerians were rendered homeless even when they pasted court orders retraining officials of the FCT from demolishing their property.


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Comments (1)
1. 03-05-2008 09:58
 
DOCTOR
CAN'T BELIEVE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL DIDNOT KNOW OR HEAR OR READ ABOUT COURT ORDERS BEING DISOBEYED BY THE FCT AND OBASANJO DURING THEIR 'WAR AGAINST NIGERIANS!' THE ONLY UNFORTUNATE THING IS THAT: WE ARE JUST DISCOVERING THEY HAD WAGED A UNILATERAL WAR AGAINST NIGERIANS. WORSE STILL, THIS GIRL CALLED IYABO WANTS TO CONTINUE THAT NONSENSE WHILE NIGERIANS CONTINUE TO DIE FROM HUNGAR IN 2008 WITH OIL SUPPLUS!
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