The Upper Area Court, in Kubwa, Abuja has ordered the immediate arrest of Atiku Abubakar, son of Nigeria’s former Vice President.
The Judge, Bashir Danmaisule, gave the order, following the failure of the former Vice President’s son to comply with an earlier judgment mandating him to hand over their three sons to his divorced wife, Maryam Sherif.
Atiku’s estranged wife had instituted a case against her ex-husband at the Upper Area Court, Gudu.
The case was later transferred to the Upper Area Court, Kubwa, with suit number CV/16/2020.
She was seeking for the custody of her three sons.
The court had on October 27, 2020, asked Atiku to hand over the children to his wife with immediate effect.
Delivering his judgment, the Judge, Hon Bashir Danmaisule, said the defendant (Abubakar) could not establish any default against the claimant to deprive her of her children under the Islamic law, noting that there was room for an appeal within the next 30 days.
But Sherif’s counsel, Nasir Saidu, applied for the issuance of a judgment-debtor summons for the defendant, when he refused to comply.
The application was for him to appear in court to explain why he refused to obey the court order and why he should not be jailed.
The defendant and his lawyer, Abdullahi Hassan, were however absent in court.
The lawyer consequently applied that the defendant be arrested and imprisoned until he complied with the court judgment, noting that he had consistently disobeyed the court order, even on bringing the children to court whenever there was a sitting on the matter.
The Judge, Danmaisule, while delivering his ruling, therefore ordered for his immediate arrest, having considered the submission of the counsel on behalf of the judgment-creditor (Sherif) and having seen the record of the court and the hearing notice served on the judgment debtor (Abubakar), who refused to appear in the court despite the notice against the proceedings.
He relied on Section 26 of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Area Courts (Repeal and Enactment) Act 2010 in delivering this ruling.
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