Court orders arrest of 5 top ATBU management staff for contempt

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

The Chief Magistrate Court 12, Bauchi has issued a warrant of arrest to five top management staff of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University [ATBU] Bauchi.
The staff included; the Dean Faculty of Management Sciences, Dr S.I Ningi; Deputy Dean Faculty of Management Sciences, Dr. Umar Usman; Director General Studies [GNS] Faculty of Management Sciences , Dr. Babangida Yerima; Head of Department [HOD] Faculty of Management, Dr Y.B Maiwada and Head of Department [DMTT] Faculty of Management of the University Dr Tijjani Abubakar respectively.
The Presiding Magistrate Hajiya Safiya M. Salihu said they were issued with arrest warrants were issued for contempt of court after they failed to appear before the court on Wednesday 17th January 2017 to respond to the suit instituted by their colleague, one Dr Idris Isyaku Abdullahi for allegedly defaming him in a petition letter they allegedly wrote and submitted to the Vice Chancellor of the institution sometime on 19th June, 2017.
According to the suit document issued to our correspondent by the plaintiff’s lawyer Nasara Joshua, the accused persons wrote in the said letter that his client brought an unknown person into campus and pointed out some staff whom ‘he considers enemies to the individual’ .
The document also states that the accused persons further alleged in the petition that the complainant has pronounced how he intended to eliminate ‘his enemies and propagated campaign of calumny on some staff and the faculty as a whole’.
‘’ We therefore crave the indulgence of this Honourable court under section 78 of the penal code to cause the Accused persons to pay the sum of five million Naira [5, 000, 000] for defamation of character and a public apology in one of the national dailies and a media house within the state capital’’.
It was gathered that after the failure of the accused university staff to appear before the magistrate, the judge issued arrest warrants on the five dependants and also ordered their remand until 24th January for continuation of hearing over the case.