Adamawa assembly vs coy: Court hears N1bn libel suit Dec. 6

From Umar Dankano,Yola.

The presiding judge in the case involving Adamawa state Assembly and a construction company, Hydro Source Resources over World Bank assisted rural road project, Justice Nathan Musa has fixed December 6th for proper hearing.
Justice Musa of High court 1 Yola gave the adjournment date Tuesday when the secretariat of court called the case file for hearing but the counsel to the defendants, Barrister Abubakar Sa’ad claimed not to have been served with the motion on notice before coming for appearance.
It could be recalled that the construction firm( Hydro source Resources) handling a N1.2 billion World Bank-assisted rural road project in the state, had dragged the Speaker, Kabiru Mijinyawa, to court for alleged libel.
Also joined in the suit are the House Committee on Rural and Community Development and seven others.
The firm alleged that the house committee had in a newspaper publication accused it of defrauding the bank and the people.
It alleged that the defendant accused it of conniving with the Ministry of Rural Development and Rural Access Mobility Project (RAMP-2) to commit the act.
When the case came up for hearing, counsel to the defendant, Mr Abubakar Sa’ad, said the house was not ready as it had not been served with the motion on notice.
“We are not ready for the mention on notice. We have not been served with the motion; we only got the writs of summon”, he said.
Counsel to the plaintiff, Mr Ahmed Garba, however, insisted that the house was served with the motion.
“We served them. We took our time to ensure the service,” Garba said.
The Judge, Nathan Musa, directed counsel to the company to serve thedefendant’s counsel with the motion during the court’s sitting which he did.
Musa adjourned the case till Dec.6 for hearing.
The court had last week, granted an order of interim injunction, restraining the assembly from taking any action against the firm and its officials, pending the determination of the substantive suit.