A Magistrates’ Court sitting in Yola has ordered the arrest of Mr Simon Isa, the lawmaker representing Song constituency in the Adamawa State House of Assembly, over failure to appear before the court.
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The Magistrate, Mr Daniel John, gave the order on Wednesday, following the refusal of the lawmaker to appear before the court over alleged charge of cheating a businessman of N490,000
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the magistrate ordered the arrest of the lawmaker after confirming from the court registrar that he was personally served with the court summons in the criminal trial.
John said that the lawmaker had no reason not to appear before the court.
“The Court Registrar has testified before the court that he personally served Mr Simon Isa with summons to appear before the court on Wednesday 12, February .
” Since there is evidences that Simon Isa was duly served, the law is no respecter of anybody,” the magistrate said.
He described the action of the lawmaker as contempt of the court and ordered for his arrest.
According to the criminal summons marked CMC/9462/2019, Simon Isa on Feb. 20, 2014, bought a 25KVA DENYO generator at N2,490,000, but paid N2million with an outstanding balance of N490,000
The charge said that all efforts to get the balance of the money since then had failed.
The act, the charge said, was tantamount to cheating and contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code Law of Adamawa State.
Earlier when the case was called, Chief Godwin Ehimakhoi, Counsel to the complainant, said that there was evidence that the defendant was duly served, but neither the defendant nor his counsel was in court.
He urged the court to use its discretion in addressing the issue.
The case was adjourned to the Feb. 18, for further mention