A civil servant in the Budget office of the Federation, Bilkisu Sannusi has sued the authorities of the Kaduna Polytechnic over an alleged defamatory publication that emanated from a budget exercise of the school.
In the suit marked: FCT/HC/CV/54/2021, and dated February 24, before the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court in Abuja, the plaintiff accused the defendants: Idris Bugaje, the Rector of Kaduna Polytechnic and Kaduna Polytechnic, whom are 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants, of damaging her reputation before right thinking members of society.
Mrs Sanusi lamented that she had suffered “great hardship, public opium and psychological trauma” as a result of the defendants’ conduct which was “unfounded and unjustifiable.”
Narrating the incident that led to the suit in her statement of claim, Mrs Sanusi said Mr Bugaje, the Rector of the Kaduna Polytechnic, described her person as “incompetent and corrupt” in a publication that was widely circulated.
The claimant who is the Schedule Officer for the Kaduna Polytechnic in the Budget office of the Federation, revealed, “The said defamatory publication authored by the defendants is dated 15th April, 2019, but was only dispatched on 26th June, 2020 at the office of the Permanent Secretary, Special Duty, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, who passed same to the Director General Budget office of the Federation, evidencing wide publication of same as disclosed by the minutes on it.”
“The date of making of the letter to the time of the dispatch clearly points to the fact that it was maliciously made and an attempt to malign the person of the plaintiff (Mrs Sanusi) as a vendetta by those she had laid complaints of corruption against alongside the defendants, while she was preparing the institution’s budget.”
“The defendants are on a vendetta because they were fingered in the corrupt practices complaint lodged by the plaintiff against them and some of her colleagues (in the Budget office) who conspired with them to manipulate the personnel budget of the Kaduna Polytechnic for year 2020.”
In the exact words of the defendants that allegedly maligned Mrs Sanusi, the statement of claim quoted the defamatory publication as saying, “Except we do the needful, asking for large amount in double digits of millions and she insisted on reducing our (Kaduna Polytechnic) proposal if we failed to comply with her demand.”
According to the court documents made available to our reporter, Mrs Sanusi denied ever demanding for any bribe or any sort of favour from the defendants to do her job as the Schedule Officer of the Kaduna Polytechnic.
She explained that while testifying at an investigative panel of inquiry that was constituted to probe complaints of corrupt practices against her colleagues at the budget office in July 2020, she was confronted with a complaint letter that was authored by the defendants wherein she was described in “uncharitable words.”
The plaintiff has urged the court to declare that the defendants’ publication of 15th April, 2019, defamed her person as same is “untrue, maliciously made and a calculation at bringing the plaintiff’s personality into disrepute and did achieve same.
“An order directing and or compelling the defendants to forthwith retract the said statement so published and tender apology to the plaintiff in two national dailies.
“Damages in the sum of N1 billion (one billion naira) only against the defendants and in favour of the plaintiff as compensation for the defendants’ wrong against her.
At the resumption of proceedings on Thursday at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, the absence of the Deputy Director in charge of Administration at the Budget office stalled the suit.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Martin Opara informed the presiding judge, Hamza Mu’azu that the Deputy Director at the Budget office of the Federation had been subpoenaed to testify in the trial.
“I am surprised that the Deputy Director at the Budget office of the Federation who was subpoenaed to testify in this suit today (Thursday) is not in court.
“I therefore urge the court to issue a hearing notice on the subpoenaed witness at the next hearing,” Mr Opara prayed the court.
The counsel to the defendants, Isiaku Mohammad, moved an application for extention of time to file a Memorandum of appearance.
While ruling on the defendants’ application, the presiding judge granted the motion and adjourned the suit till June 29, 2021, for hearing.
After several months that a probe panel concluded its work on the alleged budget fraud investigation, where the plaintiff testified, it has yet to make public its report or findings, the claimant said.
