Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), on Thursday honoured the invitation by the Abuja Federal High Court for him to appear before it to testify the fraud trial of the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina.
On March 8, 2021, Maina’s lawyer had issued subpoenas before the court on a number of people, including Falana, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) and a former acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, to appear in court between March 9 and 11 to testify as Maina’s witness.
All the people summoned by the court did not honour the invitation until on Thursday, when Falana accompanied by some individuals, including the publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, appeared in the court.
After sitting at the back of the courtroom for about 30 minutes, the Lagos based lawyer walked to the front of the courtroom and announced his presence saying: “My lord, I have been in court for about 30 minutes now. I read in the newspapers that I was summoned to testify in the ongoing case. I have not been served with a copy of the subpoena but I came out of respect for the court.”
The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang responding said, “I signed it based on the Court of Appeal’s decision that compelled me to sign it in the matter of Olisa Metuh Vs. Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He then asked a registrar of the court to accompany Falana to the court’s Registry and hand him the subpoena.
Speaking outside the courtroom with pressmen, Falana explained that the subpoena would provide an occasion to “put an end to the needless controversy surrounding a property I never bought.”