Barely one week after he handed over to a new government, the former Governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, has come under fire.
No fewer than 50 civil servants have dragged him to a Minna High Court demanding for N100 million in compensation and general damages over unlawful sale of their motorcycles.
The applicants, in a suit filed at High Court 4, dated May 12, 2015 and filed May 25, 2015, by their counsel, Barrister Adegoke Omoloja of Cosmic Chambers Abuja, prayed the court for a declaration that the seizure and subsequent sale of their motorcycles by Aliyu through his Commissioner of Works was illegal, null and void and a constituted violation of their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution.
The aggrieved civil servants said the act by the former governor amounts to illegal seizure and sale of their motorcycles, adding that it amounted to violation of their fundamental human rights.
In the application, they also prayed the court for an order awarding a compensation of N1 million in favour of each applicant against the respondents and another N50 million as general damages, thereby making their demands a whooping N200 million.
In a 60-paragraph affidavit in support of the case deposed to by one Ndagi Mohammed, the applicants said that the arrest, seizure and sale of their motorcycles has brought untold hardship and difficulties to their families, especially in getting to their places of work, taking their children to school and taking their wives to places of work or maternity checks.
Barrister Omoloja said: “Some of us bought the motorcycle through cooperative (as can be seen on purchase receipts attached) on loan which they still deduct from our salaries monthly.”
He said that Aliyu acted as prosecutor, judge, jury and auctioneer, which is a direct violation of “our right to fair hearing”, adding that their freedom to movement and right to liberty has been violated by the restriction placed on motorcycles by the first respondent, Aliyu.
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