Court Fixes Trial In N1b Suit Against NBTE Boss, Prof Bugaje For June 29

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has scheduled trial for June 29 in the N1billion defamation suit against the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and former Rector, Kaduna Polytechnic, Professor Idris M. Bugaje and two others.

The trial was expected to commence on Friday, but was rescheduled owing to the absence of a subpoenaed witness – the Deputy Director in charge of Administration at the Budget Office of the Federation, who was required to tender some vital documents.

At the mention of the case, lawyer to the plaintiff, Martin Opara informed the court that the Deputy Director at the Budget office of the Federation who was subpoenaed to testify in the trial was absent.

He said: “I am surprised that the Deputy Director at the Budget office of the Federation, who was subpoenaed to testify in this suit Friday, is not in court.

“I therefore urge the court to issue a hearing notice on the subpoenaed witness at the next hearing.”

Lawyer to the defendants, Isiaku Mohammad, moved an application for extension of time to file a memorandum of appearance.

Ruling, Justice Hamza Mu’azu granted the defendants’ application and adjourned till June 29 for hearing.

Listed with Bugaje as defendants in the suit marked: FCT/HC/CV/54/2021 filed by a civil servant in the Expenditure Department, Social A1, Budget Office of the Federation, Mrs. Bilikisu Sannusi, are The Rector, Kaduna Polytechnic and Kaduna Polytechnic 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. Sannusi 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.

Mrs. Sannusi 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. Sannusi) 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 her statement of claim, the plaintiff 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.”

Mrs. Sannusi 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 stated that while testifying at an investigative panel of inquiry that was constituted to probe complaints of corrupt practices against her colleagues at the 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.

She also wants 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.

The plaintiff is equally seeking damages of N1b against the defendants as compensation for the defendants’ wrong against her person.