Abuse of office: Yar’Adua’s aide loses battle to stop trial

By Ise-Oluwa Ige

ABUJA—An Abuja high court has thrown out a request by Mr Yusuf Tilde, the Chief Security Officer, CSO, to President Umaru Yar’Adua to stop hearing in an on-going controversial case alleging abuse of office against him.

An Abuja-based businessman, Mr Abdulkarim Bello Umar had taken out the writ against the President Yar’Adua’s aide, last year, for allegedly deploying armed security operatives to forcibly dispossess him of his landed property located in Asokoro, a high brow area of the Federal Capital Territory.

The businessman had urged the court to make a clear and unambiguous pronouncement on whether self-help was available to him (Yar’Adua’s CSO) to enter and dispossess him of his property without recourse to due process of law.

But instead of allowing trial to go on, Tilde had come with several applications to frustrate full blown trial , the latest of which was thrown out last Friday by the court.

Tilde and the Attorney-General of the Federation had approached the Court with an oral application for stay of proceedings in the suit pending the outcome of an appeal for interlocutory injunction but the court declined, saying his request was unmeritorious.