The senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Kano Central District, Abdulsalam Abdulkarim, commonly referred to as A. A Zaura has lost a bid at the Supreme Court to stop his corruption charges at the Federal High Court in Kano.
The Supreme Court on Thursday struck out Mr Abdulkarim’s applications and ordered the politician to appear before the Federal High Court in Kano to face the charges against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC filed a five-count charge on Mr Abdulkarim at the Federal High Court in Kano for allegedly defrauding a Kuwaiti.
On 9 June 2020, a trial judge of the Federal High Court in Kano, Lewis Allagoa, dismissed the charges against Mr Abdulkarim. Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC proceeded to the appellate court in Kano. The court in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel, delivered by Abdullahi Bayero, set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court and ordered that the defendant be tried afresh by a different judge.
The case was subsequently assigned to Justice Mohammed Yunusa for retrial. Instead of appearing for arraignment, Mr Abdulkarim headed to the Supreme Court with two applications, one seeking an interim injunction and the other for an interlocutory injunction to restrain the Federal High Court Kano from taking any step in the case pending the hearing of his appeal at the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the five-man panel of justices led by Inyang Okoro ruled that the Supreme Court has no power under the law to stay proceedings in a criminal matter. The court struck out both applications.
With this, Mr Abdullarim will appear in person on 5 December for the continuation of the alleged corruption trial as earlier ordered by the Court of Appeal in Kano.
Premium Times
