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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A property developer, Mr. Cecil Osakwe, has filed a N1 billion lawsuit against the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN, as damages over alleged abuse of office.
Joined as a co-defendant in the suit pending before the Abuja division of the Federal High Court is a civil servant, and staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Ms Asabe Waziri, alleged to be at the centre of the case wherein the AGF is being accused of bias in its prosecution.
Asabe, a civil servant, was said to have bought a property worth N130 million in Maitama District of Abuja.
Osakwe, through his lawyer, Mr Victor Giwa, said his reputation has been damaged through the actions and decisions of the AGF in a civil case between two individuals.
The plaintiff sued Malami in his personal and official capacity for abuse of his office, as minister of justice, when he preferred charges against him, and used the charge as a tool to blackmail and arm-twist him to give out two units of three-bedroom flats in one of his properties at Mekong Close Maitama, Abuja, to Asabe Waziri, even against valid court order.
He further claimed that the Attorney General used his office to supervise the continuous harassment of Osakwe by men of the Nigerian Police Force on matters that are purely civil with respect to the sales of the property.
Giwa told the court that his client brought the action against the AGF, both in his official and personal capacities, claiming that Malami acted with malice and abused his office in raising charge of “collecting money under false pretence’’ from Asabe Waziri, when he was fully aware that Asabe Waziri moved into the property and lived in the said property for over eight months before she was eventually vacated from the property by a lawful court order that terminated the sales transaction between both parties.
Asabe Waziri and Cecil Osakwe have been in a fierce battle over the control of two units of three-bedroom flats, which was sold to Asabe Waziri by Abeh Signature Ltd, a company owned by Cecil Osakwe.
