A human rights activist and Executive Chairman, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, has slammed the Minister of State for Labour and the Spokesperson for All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), for dragging the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Presidential Candidate in the 2023 Presidential election, Ahaji Atiku Abubakar.

Sulaima has therefore urged Kayamo to withdraw what he called “the frivolous and illegal lawsuit” he has instituted against Atiku over “the purported and trump-up allegations of corruption and money laundering while in office as Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, between 1999 and 2007.”

The rights activist described Keyamo’s lawsuit as “action of less-busy body and legal delitianty of a typical legal practitioner”, describing the lawsuit as a mere distraction, abuse of court process and to waste the precious time of the judiciary by creating more palpable tension in the political space of the country ahead of February 25, 2023 Presidential election.

He urged Keyamo to stop embarrassing the legal Profession, the Senior Silk of the profession and the nation’s human rights community which he professed to belong to in the past, saying that Keyamo should cover his face in shame with this frivolous lawsuit that lacks bearing in the judicial system of the country.

Last week, Keyamo, approached the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, and in Suit N0: FHC/ABJ/84/2023, is praying the Court to compel former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, to submit himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) for thorough investigation on a matter which the Apex Court in the land, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, had given Atiku Abubakar clean bill in 2007 as the then Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Keyamo, also sought in the Suit that Atiku needs to be investigated over an alleged information available to him (Keyamo) through the unsubstantiated information made available by a purported former Aide to Atiku, Mr. Michael Achimugu, who disclosed that Atiku told him (Achimugu) on how a Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) were being used secretly to misappropriate public funds between 1999 and 2007 when the 1st Defendant (Atiku) served as Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria then.

Comrade Sulaiman who doubles as Convener, Save Lagos Group (SLG), urged Nigerian masses not to take Mr. Keyamo serious on “this frivolous and political lawsuit” by just looking at Keyamo as attention seeker who want to use the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to gain public sympathy and political relevance in 2023 after he had failed in his portfolio as Minister of State for Labour under which Academic Staff Union of the University (ASUU) went on industrial action for almost nine months, without any tangible contribution from his office on how to solve the imbroglio.

The pro-democracy activist who was reacting to the lawsuit by Keyamo against Atiku, condemned the suit as unnecessary but to cause setback for the good people of the country who have determined to change the present ruling political party at the forthcoming poll for bringing untold hardship on Nigerians in the last eight years.

Sulaiman, in a statement made available to newsmen on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, noted that the prayers in the suit were not different from the one filed against Atiku by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under the chairmanship of Nuhu Ribadu, when Keyamo was Lawyer to EFCC. Then, Atiku was the then Presidential candidate of Action Congress (AC) in 2007 and the Supreme Court gave him Atiku clean bill to contest the presidential race then.

Sulaiman maintained that no lower Court could adjudicate on the issues that have been settled by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

He emphatically stated that Kayamo lacks moral obligation to institute such an action against Abubakar and enjoined the Minister to withdraw the case.

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