No order to shield Maina from arrest – Court

An Abuja Federal High Court on Tuesday said it did not make any order to shield the chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Force, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, from arrest.
The court, presided by Justice Adamu Bello, said  it did not direct parties to maintain the status quo in a suit brought by Maina against the Senate and the Inspector General of Police.
Bello made the clarification after Maina’s lawyer, M. A. Magaji, SAN, complained that the respondents had, against the orders of the court, taken actions that upset the status quo concerning his client.
Maina had dragged the Senate, the Senate President, the Clerk of the Senate, the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, the Senate Committee State and Local Government Administration, the Inspector General of Police, and Senators Aloysius Etuk and Kabiru Gaya, before an Abuja Federal High Court in a bid to enforce his fundamental human rights, and also set aside a Warrant of Arrest issued against him.
The matter came up for adoption of written addresses on Tuesday, but, following applications by the respondents for extension of time to file the addresses, the case had been adjourned to March 5, 2013.
However, immediately after Justice Bello adjourned the matter, Maina’s lawyer, Magaji, rose to complain that despite the pending suit the respondents had gone ahead to take actions that upset the status quo.
“Contrary to the orders of this court that status quo be maintained, a lot of fresh issues have taken place,” he said.
But counsel for the Senate, Mr. Ken Ikonne, noted that the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, which reportedly signed a memo that dissolved the PRTT, was not a party in the suit.
Ikonne also argued that Maina’s lawyer did not present any material to prove that the respondents had upset the status quo.
“The learned SAN has not brought any fact to prove that the parties have upset the status quo. The Head of Service is not a party to the suit,” Ikonne said.
But Justice Bello noted that he did not order the parties to maintain status quo.
“I didn’t make any order that regards any status quo. If you remember, I said actions taken during the pendency of the suit stand to be set aside at the right time,” the judge said.
The Head of Service of the Federation, acting on the directive of President Goodluck Jonathan, had dissolved the Maina-led PRTT.
The court had on Friday, February 15, refused to grant Maina’s ex parte application to stop his planned arrest. Also on February 18, the court refused to order that status quo be maintained in all matters concerning the PRTF boss.
Maina is asking the court for a number of reliefs, chief of which is an order setting aside the Warrant of Arrest issued against him by the Senate on February 2, 2013, as well as a declaration that the decision of the Senate, through its Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service, and the Committee on State and Local Government Administration, directing his immediate arrest and detention, was illegal and unconstitutional.