Kano Magistrate, Aminu Gabari, allegedly forces litigant to pay bribe to bank account
Embattled Kano senior magistrate, Aminu Gabari, has been reported to have allegedly coerced a litigant before his court to pay a briber sum of N400,000 to his bank account.
Recall that Mr Gabari’s alleged exploits in the State judiciary had caused numerous petitions to be written against him, most of which were alleged to have been unattended to by Kano State Chief Judge.
A civil society organisation last week wrote to the National Judicial council, querying why the Chief Judge keeps sitting on petitions against Gabari without acting on them.
Daily Nigerian reported that in a petition addressed to the Kano Chief Judge, Nura Sagir, one Ismail Maitama Yusuf (a complainant before Mr Gabari) claimed that he paid the sum of N400, 000 in two tranches to Mr Gabari in order to secure the release of a part of his money deposited in the court.
The petition, dated January 31, 2022, also revealed how Mr Gabari released two suspects in questionable circumstances, despite defrauding the petitioner of N38 million.
The petition reads in part:
“Sir, sometime in December 2020, I was defrauded by some people named Abbas Dauda Isah, Awwal Mainasara and Jeremiah Obida (now defendants), where they conspired and defrauded me the sum of N38,000,000 (Thirty-Eight Million Naira) as a result of which the police from the AIG Zone 1 Kano filed FIR against them, (and) same was directed to Senior Magistrate Court 58 Normansland, Kano for prosecution of the offences of conspiracy and receipt by false pretense.
“Sir, during the arraignment, the defendants admitted the alleged offences and the court asked them to write an undertaking for the refund of my money. They undertook in writing to refund my money within two weeks from the date of the arraignment, but they failed to do so as promised. Instead, the two defendants only deposited the sum of N3,000,000 each, making the total sum of N6,000,000 as part of my money. They are Abbas Dauda Isah and Auwal Mainassara.
“Sir, the court released them on bail, but the third defendant (Jeremiah Obida) was released on bail without providing any surety/sureties for the reason best known to the court, as a result of which he (Jeremiah Obida) absconded bail and disappeared for the period of more than 8 months.
“Sir, before the sum of N6,000,000 deposited as part of my money released to me, I was forced by the above-mentioned magistrate that I will be given the money on bond and I must give him the sum of N400,000 as his share, which he collected the sum of N200,000 through bank account. I attached the back payment slip of N200,000 to his bank account as evidence.
Subsequently, he collected the addition at sum of N200,000 cash from me at his residence in Sharada Jaen, Baffa Babba Dan-Agundi line, in the presence of Mallam Bashir Ahmed and Yusuf Muhammad Sani as witnesses.
“Sir, as soon as the court knew that he (Jeremiah Obida) was re-apprehended by his co-defendants, the court without any application by either party, transferred the case instantly to Chief Magistrate Court 14, Gyadi-Gyadi Complex, because the Magistrate Court 58 does not want the secret behind the abscondment of bail of the Jeremiah Obida to be exposed, and therefore, the magistrate extracted some important documents in the case file, including the bond I was forced to write and the undertaking written for the refund of my money by Jeremiah Obida and then transferred the case, almost empty file.
“Sir, with utmost respect, despite the fact that the case was transferred before Chief Magistrate Court 14 Gyadi-Gyadi suo-moto by the Court 58, however, His Worship Aminu Muhammad Gabari keeps calling me with his mobile phone number (08065433765) on different occasions that I should refund the sum of N6,000,000 to him, or else he will deal with me and even threatened to arrest me anytime and anywhere.”
Daily Nigerian said it approached Mr Gabari to speak on the allegations, and that the magistrate denied collecting any bribe from the petitioner, saying that the allegation is a mere claim.
According to Mr Gabari, the petitioner came up with the allegations in order to create public sympathy because he was declared wanted by the court.
He was quoted to have said: “I can’t respond to the petition. Responding to the petition means I am joining issues with him, which contravenes my stand as a public servant.
“If you need further clarification on the matter, please contact the PRO of the court.
“In fact, the petitioner is on bench warrant. I have ordered for his arrest in order to return the N6million he collected on bond. He promised to return the money anytime the court needs it but has refused to do so.”
The mediun quoted the spokesman for Kano judiciary, Baba Jibo Ibrahim, to have said he could not speak on the matter at the moment.
Daily Nigerian, an Abuja-based online news medium, reported that “Mr Gabari is notorious for jailing and imposing stringent bail conditions on critics of the governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje.”
This raises the question whether the state government is also involved in perpetrating corruption in the judiciary though bribing judges.
The medium reported that it gathered that direct complaints emanating from the Kano Government House are always filed and prosecuted in his court, in clear contravention of Section 107 (4)(5)(6) of the Administration Criminal Justice Law, ACJL, which provides that magistrates in whose courts direct complaints are filed should not be the ones to try the substantive matter but only take cognisance of the offence and direct the matter to another magistrate.
The medium said “lucrative cases” involving high profile persons or huge amounts of money are often directed to his court, for reasons best known to the state judiciary.
Culled from: NigerianSketch
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