N2bn defamation suit: Court refuses to recall El-Rufai

The Kaduna State High Court on Thursday refused the application of the Union Newspaper to recall Governor Nasir El-Rufai, the fifth witness, in the libel suit filed against the newspaper, to testify in the matter again.

Governor El-Rufai had testified in the court on May 11, 2017, in a libel suit the instituted against the publishers of The Union newspapers.

El-Rufai had sued the newspaper and its reporter in Kaduna when the medium published that he declared assets worth N90 billion, including 40 mansions, scattered across the country.

Delivering her ruling, Justice Mario Muhammad of the Kaduna State High Court, dismissed the application on the grounds that the applicant lacked material evidence for her to recall the Governor.

Muhammad adjourned the matter until May 27 for continuation of defence.

Earlier, the respondent’s counsel, Hiifan Abbul applied to the court to recall El-Rufai and confront him with new facts gotten from the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Sule Umoru, counsel to the plaintiff, said he filed an objection to the application made by the respondents on Dec. 14, 2019.

On his part, Abbul explained that the application for recall of the fifth witness was to seek clarifications on the asset declarations made during his tenure as a minister and his present position as a governor.

“Therefore, we wanted to get the previous asset declaration to compare with the one he filled as the governor and which was brought after he had testified.