Ex worker drags T.Y Danjuma to court, demands N208m...Petitions President Jonathan

Danjuma

The fear of the media is the beginning of wisdom for the former Defence Minister, Lt. Gen Theophilus Danjuma (rtd). SHOWBIZPLUSng gathered that the scared billionaire and husband of Daisy has asked a Federal High Court, Lagos, to bar media coverage of a N208 million rights abuse suit filed against him by the former Executive Director Tita-Kuru Petrochemicals Limited, Mr. Manasseh Obadiah Zorto.

Tita-Kuru is one of the companies chaired by Danjuma.

Zorto through his counsel, Rickey Tarfa (SAN) had brought the suit against Danjuma, Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Police in Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Elaho, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Uwa, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), State Security of Service (SSS) and Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) for unlawful arrest at the instance of Danjuma.

He also asked the court to declare that his arrest by the officers of the Nigeria Police Force-SFU, Milverton, Ikoyi at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos on January17, 2014 without justification was “wrongful, illegal and unconstitutional and a gross violation of his fundamental human rights as guaranteed by sections 35 and 44 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999.”

Zorto while seeking for a perpetual injunction restraining all the respondents asked the court to compel them to pay him N208 million for the violation of his rights.

Responding, the Police through their counsel, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN) contended that Zorto’s arrest and detention was “valid, legitimate, constitutional and lawful”.

But Danjuma’s lawyer, Mr. A.E. Moyede of B.B. Dan-Habu Chambers filed a motion at the Federal High Court to restrain Zorto or his agents “from further commenting or publishing and or addressing to third parties petitions on the subject matter of this suit pending the hearing and determining of the matter”.

Specifically, he referred to the publication in a national newspaper which published Zorto’s petition against Danjuma to President Goodluck Jonathan on February,17 2014, asking that there was “need to protect the rest of the litigation. ”

According to him, the application to bar media comment is to maintain status quo pending the final determination of the rights of the parties as well as to maintain the dignity of this honourable court.