An Abuja Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a former member of the House of Representatives, Nura Marafa (PDP-Zamfara), for failing to appear in court.
The Senior Magistrate, Mr Abdullahi Illelah, gave the order, after Marafa who was alleged to have issued a dud cheque to a
businessman, Abubakar Ibrahim, owner of Interlink Communications Ltd, failed to appear in court.
“In view of the absence of the accused in court, in spite of the fact that he was duly served with the writ of
summons, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Life Camp is hereby, ordered to arrest him.
“The DPO is also ordered to produce the accused on the next adjourned date one week from today.
“This bench warrant is issued in line with section 149 of the Criminal Procedure Code,’’ Illellah ordered.
Earlier, the complainant had told the court that the accused came to his shop on June 25 and bought six blackberry cell-phones of
various models, one I-pad, one I-phone, among others, totaling N898,000.
He said that the accused issued him a July 1, post-dated cheque of N440,000 being part-payment for the items he had collected but it turned out to be a dud cheque.
Ibrahim said that he also gave the accused a receipt in respect of the transaction.
The complainant said that after repeated demands the accused again gave him another cheque on July 24, which also bounced and so was returned unpaid.
He said that all efforts made by him to compel the accused to pay him the money proved abortive, resulting in his making a
direct criminal complaint at the Life Camp Police Station on June 25.
In his submission, the Court Bailiff, Mr Abdulkadir Yakubu, said that he had personally served the accused with the writ of
summons and that Marafa had endorsed the duplicate copy. (NAN)
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