Nigeria Content Online

An attempt by the
National Assembly election tribunal to serve an order from the Ilorin
High Court bailiff on the Kwara Central senator-elect and serving
governor, Bukola Saraki, at the state government house on Monday was
allegedly resisted by the governor’s security detail.

The court bailiff,
Saka Adetoro, in an eight-paragraph affidavit averred that he and two
others were ordered by the security men to remove “an order from the
tribunal vide the motion ex-parte, moved by the counsel to the
petitioners, to paste all the court processes on the gate of Government
House, Ilorin, through the substituted means. Order of 20 May 2011,
duly signed by the chairman and the secretary of election petition
tribunal.”

The bailiff added,
“the secretary assigned me to paste the said order and all the
processes at the gate of Government House, Ilorin.”

Barring the way

He said he was
accompanied by two others, a Mr John and Mr Ali, saying that both of
them had reached the second gate of the government house, where they
pasted the order, but were ordered to remove it by the security men.

Mr Adetoro said,
“We told the security and showed them the said order, that it is the
court order, not our own making; that there is a signature of ‘my
lord’, the chairman of the National Assembly election petition
tribunal. He said he does not know [my] lord; what he knows is his
oga.”

Mr Adetoro said
they were subsequently summoned to the government house security base
to address a police inspector, who also refused to let them paste the
order.

However, the
affidavit omitted Monday’s speculation that the court officials were
beaten up by security men on the orders of government house officials.

When contacted, the chief press secretary to Mr Saraki, Mas’ud
Adebimpe. confirmed that they were aware of the matter but added that
the state attorney general and commissioner for justice, Kamaldeen
Ajibade, would react to it accordingly.