Contempt: Court Orders PDP Factional Chair Turaki’s Arrest
By Gabriel Ogunlana
A High Court sitting in Abuja, the federal capital territory (FCT) has ordered the arrest of Kabiru Turaki, a factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over his failure to appear before it for a criminal case instituted against him by the police over four years ago.
Speaking during the trial on Wednesday, Justice U.P Kekemeke stated that Turaki had no justification for not honouring the court summons served him.
Kekemeke subsequently ordered the arrest of Turaki, who was also a former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs under President Goodluck Jonathan,
The case against Turaki has been in court for the past four years. The PDP factional chairman is standing trial on a one-count charge of allegedly providing false information to the police in a petition dated October 2022. The office of the Inspector General of Police is the prosecutor.
Wednesday would be the second consecutive time that Turaki would be absent from court, the PDP factional chairman had earlier failed to appear for trial on January 28 despite prior court order thereby stalling the case.
Speaking at the proceedings, the prosecution asked the court to issue a bench warrant against the defendant for failing to honour the summons.
While making a case for his client, the defence counsel told the court that Turaki’s absence was due to a petition written to the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court seeking the transfer of the case to another judge, citing a lack of confidence in the court.
Meanwhile, while delivering judgement on the case, Justice Kekemeke held that the Turaki’s argument holds no water stressing that the filing of a petition does not halt criminal proceedings unless there is a directive from the Chief Judge to that effect.
The judge subsequently granted the prosecution’s application and ordered that the defendant be arrested and produced before the court for arraignment.
Meanwhile, the matter was adjourned for further proceedings.
