N130m property: Osakwe seeks N1b damages

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, has been dragged before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, over abuse of office.

Also dragged before the court alongside the minister is a civil servant, a staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Ms Asabe Waziri.

Asabe, a civil servant was said to have bought a property worth N130m in Maitama District of Abuja.

In the suit, filed by a businessman and property developer, Osakwe, he is praying the court for an order of N1b damages against the AGF.

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Osakwe, through his lawyer, Mr Victor Giwa, said his reputation has been damaged through the actions and decisions of the AGF in a civil case between two individuals.

Osakwe sued Malami in his personal and official capacity for abuse of his office, as minister of justice, when he preferred charges against him.

Barrister Giwa also claimed that the attorney general used his office to supervise the continuous harassment of Osakwe, by men of the Nigerian police force on matters that are purely civil with respect to the sales of the property.

According to him, his client brought the action against the AGF both in his official and personal capacities, claiming that Malami acted with malice, and abused his office in raising the charge of “collecting money under false pretence’’ from Waziri when he was fully aware that Waziri moved into the property and lived in the said property for over eight months before she was eventually vacated from the property by a lawful court order that terminated the sales transaction between both parties.

Waziri and Osakwe have been in a fierce battle over the control of two units of 3-bedroom flats which was sold to Waziri by Abeh Signature Ltd, a company owned by Osakwe.