50 luxury govt vehicles in Matawalle house: Ex-Gov rejects judgement, files appeal against retrieval

 

Joseph Irikefe

 

The Minister of Defence and the immediate past Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, has approached the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgement of a Federal High Court sitting in Sokoto, which ordered the retrieval of 50 luxury vehicles from the former governor.

He described the judgement of the court as a miscarriage of justice.

The lower court in its judgement said the retrieval of the vehicles was in order.

The police command in the state had invaded the residence of Matawalle in June, shortly after he left office as the state governor to recover the vehicles allegedly belonging to the state government.

But he approached the high court through his counsel, Dr Ahmed Raji, SAN, to challenge the “illegal” invasion of his house by the police to retrieve the vehicle.

Last week, the high court ruled that the recovery of the vehicles was in order.

But not satisfied by the judgement, Matawalle filed six grounds of appeal saying that the judgement was a miscarriage of justice.

According to him, the high court erred in law to have arrived at the decision after expunging the exhibit annexed by the plaintiff and the supporting affidavit in the originating motion.

He further said there was no evidence that a valid court order was shown to the occupants of the house before the police invaded it and recovered the vehicle.

According to him in the appeal, the high court failed to do a proper evaluation of evidence it before arriving at the judgement and dismissed the applicant’s case.

He said the decision of the court is against the weight of evidence and called on the appeal court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgement of the court.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.