A Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, has fined the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai for failing to produce his witness in a libel case against former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh.
The governor had filed a N1.5bn suit against the former PDP spokesman for linking him to Boko Haram in 2014.
El-Rufai on four occasions since June 2016 failed to produce his witness to substantiate his claim against Metuh at the court.
During the resumed hearing of the trial on Wednesday, counsel to the governor, Rabi Adamu, informed the court that his witness was not available to testify, he then prayed for an adjournment.
Reacting to Adamu’s prayer, lawyer to Metuh, Ben-Chuks Nwosu, said the failure of the plaintiff to produce his witness showed that there is no case against the former PDP spokesman.
Describing the action of the governor as an abuse of court process, Nwosu prayed the court not to entertain such.
He also urged the court to compel the governor to produce his witness or immediately close the case.
He also asked the court to award a cost of N150,000 in favour of his client.
Justice Abubakar Talba, while ruling on the matter awarded a cost of N10,000 in favour of Metuh. Talba, consequently adjourned the matter till July 5.
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