[size=15pt]Produce Maasaba in court, judge orders prison boss[/size]

Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 26.09.2008

Justice G.O Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday ordered the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) to produce super-polygamist, Alhaji Bello Maasaba, in person in court on October 27.


He gave the order at the resumed hearing of a suit filed by Maasaba challenging the fatwa passed on him by the Jamatu Nasril Islam, an Islamic group in the North, for marrying 86 wives.


The judge also condemned the arraignment and detention of Maasaba in prison by an Upper Sharia court in Minna, Niger State, despite his earlier order stopping the arrest and detention of the controversial Islamic scholar, pending the outcome of the suit before him.


Justice Kolawole had ordered all parties in the case to stay action in the matter pending determination of the motion on notice in the case, when Maasaba raised the alarm that his hecklers were planning to arrest him.


The judge also gave Maasaba the go-ahead to serve all the court processes including the motion on notice on all the defendants while yesterday was given as a return date.


Against the court order, Maasaba was, last week Tuesday, arraigned before an Upper Sharia court in Minna, where he was ordered to be remanded in prison custody until October 6.


While expressing surprise that his order that the man should not be arrested was defied, the judge insisted that as a superior court, it was necessary for him to know if the respondent had infringed on Maasaba’s fundamental human right.

source:http://www.tribune.com.ng/26092008/news/news16.html