The presiding high court judge, Justice G. O Kolawole who issued the summons yesterday also ordered the Superintendent of Minna Prisons to produce Alhaji Masaba before him at the next adjourned to enable him make an order for his immediate release if both the police and the Niger government could not convince him on his continued detention.

Masaba was, physically, in court yesterday following an order of the high court on the Minna Prison authourities that he must be produced.

Although he is 84 years, he is still looking agile but definitely not like somebody who could service the dozens of wives he is said to be maintaining.

He sat quietly by the dock, all through yesterday’s proceedings.

Justice Kolawole who was visibly angry yesterday by the deliberate breach of his order to the effect that he should not be arrested or tried by any person or authourity pending determination of a motion on notice before him expressed displeasure at the continued detention and trial of the octogenarian cleric.

Although he restrained himself yesterday from making a direct order stopping Masaba’s trial before an Upper Sharia court in Niger state and a Minna Chief Magistrate court, he however directed that a copy of his fresh order made yesterday must be served on the two courts on one hand and the Niger state government with the police who are each claiming ignorance of the proceedings before him.

The judge said he was of the view that the two lower courts that had already assumed jurisdictions on Masaba’s case after he had ordered a stay of action on the matter were never aware of the proceedings in the same subject-matter before his court.

It is trite that when a higher court is seized of the facts of a case, no lower court can entertain or sit over same subject-matter.

By implication, the directive by the Abuja Federal high court that a copy of the enrolment of his order in the matter be served on parties which are on record and those not on record including the two lower courts was a direct order staying proceedings in their courts.

Although Masaba is expected to be taken before the Minna magistrate court which granted him protective bail, it is doubtful if any worthwhile proceedings will hold on the day because of developments in the matter yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Abuja Federal high court is expected to rule on an application by Jamatu Nasril Islam (NJI) and the Bida Emirate Council (BEC) challenging the jurisdiction of the court to sit on the suit by Masaba.

The two bodies had contended that the court had no powers to make any order binding on all the parties in the case, its jurisdiction having been challenged.

They had maintained that the order made by the court at the last adjourned date compelling the Superintendent of Prisons in Minna to produce Masaba was a bad order without a force of law.

But the judge who fixed November 12 for ruling on the application yesterday dismissed as arrant nonsense the position by the two bodies, saying “the court’s jurisdiction exists until it is proved not to exist.”

Fedral high court sitting in Maitama area of the FCT yesterday expressed its displeasure over the continued detention of  Muhammad Bello Abubakar known as Masaba in  Minna  prisons, contrary to the order of the court that he should not be restricted from enjoying his fundamental human rights as enshrined in the 1999 constitution

Justice G.O Kolawale who presided over the case, maintained that “ No one has the power no matter his office or position, to act in a manner that will sabotage the 1999 constitution, or make a ridicule of court proceedings, or carry on in defiance of its order and the validity of any court order should not be determined by disobedience” he added.

Counsel to the Jamatu Nasril , Mahmammed Katu in his submissions however denied that the body acted in contravention of  the court order,he said that they had not only challenged the jurisdiction of the fedral high court to entertain the matter,but are also challenging the competence of the issue before the court on the basis that Jamatu Nasril as used in the case is not a proper party as it is a registered  body and therefore can not be sued with that name.

He futher said that those who instituted the Minna action which the court referred to, are not parties to the case and therefore could not be said to have gone contrary to the order of the court.

He further said  that their was never a time that the Jamaatu Nasril  declared Fatwa on Masaba.

Speaking also,counsel to the Bida Emirate counsel, Jubril kallam, said that the fact in the case before the fedral high court and the ane before a magistrate court are not the same.

He said that while the one before the fedral high court,bothers on fundamental human rights,that the one in Minaa,is a criminal proceeding.

He said that Masaba had earlier been granted a conditional  protective bail in view of the circumstances sorounding his case and that  he has however failed to meet up with the conditions which includes two shortees and that is why he has remained in prison custody from where he was brought to court.

However,the judge said that nobody should think that because he is not a party in the case

At the last adjourned date, the high court judge had also expressed displeasure over the arrest, detention and the on-going trial of Alhaji Bello Abubakar Masaba before the Upper Sharia Court sitting in Minna  and the Chief Magistrate Court in the state after it had assumed jurisdiction on the same issue that took him before them

According to the judge, “this court as a superior court of record has a right to make sure that its orders are not ridiculed”.

It would be recalled that Alhaji Bello Masaba, the man who said he has 86 wives, had, a couple of weeks ago, invoked the original jurisdiction of the Federal high court sitting in Abuja seeking its order nullifying the death sentence (Fatwa) passed on him by the highest Islamic body in Northern Nigeria , Jamatu Nasril Islam.

Masaba, in the suit, was also begging the court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the order of banishment issued against him by Bida Emirate Council.

The Emirate Council is a body comprising the Emir and traditional leaders of Nupe.

In the application for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights lodged at the registry of the Federal high court by his lawyer, Masaba invited the court to hold that notwithstanding the provisions of Islamic laws, the provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must take precedence.

He was of the view that by the provision of the 1999 constitution, he enjoys freedom of movement and that his choice to marry 86 wives does not constitute a legally punishable offence at the time the marriages took place and that the order of “Fatwa” passed on him is unknown to law.

The Administrative Judge of the Federal high court, Abuja had assigned the case to Justice G O Kolawole who, had, during vacation, granted Masaba permission to sue both the Jamatu Nasril Islam, the highest Islamic body in the North and the Bida Emirate Council together with their officials.

The court had ordered all parties in the case to stay action in the matter pending determination of the motion on notice in the case  

Kolawole J had also ordered Alhaji Masaba to serve all the court processes including the motion on notice on all the defendants.

Although the court order was allegedly carried out to the letter by Alhaji Masaba, the Sharia Commission were alleged to have petitioned the police over the matter leading to the arrest and arraignment of the man with 86 wives before an Upper Sharia court sitting in Minna.

He is presently cooling his heels in detention.

Masaba came to the limelight recently when he claimed in an interview that he had 86 wives.

Following the interview, the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, asked him to divorce 82 of them or be banished from Bida.

The Etsu’s directive was based on the Islamic injunction that allows a Muslim only four wives.

At a meeting held at the palace of the Etsu Nupe, with Masaba in attendance, the acting Chief Imam of Bida, Malam Yakatu Adamu, read the relevant verses of the Quran on marriage.

Adamu made references to Masaba’s various interviews and said that having 86 wives was an offence in Islam.

In his response, the 84-year-old Masaba said he stopped reading the Quran many years ago and sought to know why the Holy Book should limit a Muslim to only four wives.

After a heated argument, the Etsu, who presided over the meeting, pronounced that Masaba was not a Muslim.

‘’From the facts available to us, you are not a Muslim and you are hereby given two days to divorce 82 of your 86 wives.

“If you fail to do so, we cannot guarantee your safety in Bida and the entire Nupe kingdom and as such, you should pack your load and leave,” he said.

Subsequently, Masaba has denied reports in the media that he was planning to divorce 82 of his wives.

He said there was no such plan. Rather, he said, he would take more wives if the need arose.

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