Daily Trust (Abuja)
Sunday Ejike Benjamin
8 July 2009
President Umaru Musa Yar'adua is appealing the judgement of an Abuja High Court, which adjourned indefinitely the criminal defamation suit he instituted against LEADERSHIP, an Abuja based newspaper organization.
In a notice of appeal filed before the Court of Appeal, Abuja, the president contended that the two member panel of the court which sat in an appellate capacity erred in law when they held that since the accused persons cannot apply to compel the attendance of the president, the matter must wait till he leaves office or else amount to a denial of the accused person's right to fair hearing.
Justices Abubakar Talba and C.O. Agbaza, in their ruling gave an unbiased marriage between section 308 and section 36 (b) (d) of the 1999 constitution. They said Section 308 (1) provides that no process of any court requiting or compelling the appearance of the president or any other person to whom the said section applies shall be applied or issued.
They said the provision of Section 308 of the constitution would affect the rights of the accused persons as enshrined in section 36 (6) (d) of the same constitution and also section 163 (1) of the criminal procedure code (CPC).
Meanwhile, counsel to LEADERSHIP, Mr. Bassey Adeyemi Ebenezer has expressed the paper's readiness to follow the matter up to the Supreme Court "so that the novel and the grave constitutional issue raised by the President's suit could be settled once and for all."
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