Ganduje shortchanged court N2.9m filing fees, DAILY NIGERIAN lawyer tells court

A Kano State High Court presided over by Justice Namallam on November 19 granted an interim injunction stopping Mr Jaafar and his online newspaper, DAILY NIGERIAN, from further releasing and publishing the video clips of Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje allegedly taking a bribe. The application sought an order restraining the first defendant (Jaafar) and second defendant (DAILY NIGERIAN) and their agents from publishing, sharing or spreading videos injurious to the plaintiff/applicant, pending the determination of the substantive application slated for hearing on December 6. But in a notice for preliminary objection, DAILY NIGERIAN lawyer, M.B. Dan’azumi, sought an order striking the case for lack of jurisdiction as no leave was obtained to serve the writ and all court processes out of jurisdiction. Mr Dan’azumi also sought an order dismissing the suit of the instant application for the governor’s failure to pay the requisite filing fees which robs the court of jurisdiction. He argued that the Writ of Summons was not paid for as required by the Rules of the High Court before suing an ordinary person or common citizen and not a governmental department, ministry or parastatal. The lawyer also said the fee was neither exempted nor waived as in the case of indigent citizens, a destitute or pauper (proceedings in forma pauperies). He said the fees payable as per Mr Ganduje’s claim of N3billion damages pursuant to Fist Schedule (FEES PAYABLE IN THE HIGH COURT OF KANO ON COMMENCEMENT OF CAUSES) of the rules of the court were captured at paragraph 12 of page 281. According to the rule, for a N1million damage, N500 should be paid as filing fee, and after the first N1million, the amount to be paid for each million naira is N1,000. “Thus, 0.1 % of N3,000,000,000.00 damage, is N2,999,000,500.00 which is still unpaid and un-waived as per the Writ of Summons.” DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that Mr Ganduje paid only N104,000 instead of N2.9m required by law for damages amounting to N3billion. The case was adjourned till January 10, 2019 for hearing of the motion.]]>