Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Housing Authority, Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin, risks imprisonment over his failure to obey an order of the National Industrial Court in Abuja, which directed him to reverse the suspension of the Managing Director of a subsidiary of the FHA, the FHA Homes Ltd, Roland Igbinoba.
Following a suit filed by Igbinoba, challenging his suspension from office, Justice M.N Esowe, on June 19, 2015, granted an interim injunction restraining the respondents to the suit including Al-Amin, from going ahead to implement the suspension letter dated June 2, 2015.
The respondents in the suit are the FHA, FHA Homes Limited and Al-Amin.
Igbinoba, in an application dated June 30, 2015, asked the court to commit both Al-Amin and the Acting Managing Director of FHA Homes, Haytuddeen Atiku, to prison for disobeying the court order which had been served on them on June 22, 2015.
The applicant’s counsel, Chukwunweike Okafor, stated as part of the grounds of the application that Al-Amin had in various paid advertorials and interview in newspapers “acknowledged being aware of the court order of June 19, 2015.”
The lawyer added, “The said Haytudeed Awal Atiku refused to vacate the position of the Managing Director wherein he, the 3rd respondent (Al-Amin), has informed him not to vacate the said position.”
He is therefore seeking “An order of committal to prison custody of the 3rd respondent (Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the FHA) for disobedience to an order of the court made on June 19, 2015 wherein the respondents were mandated to reverse all the steps they have taken relinquishing and restoring the control and powers vested in the claimant/applicant as Managing Director of the 2nd respondent.
In the second prayer, the applicant asked for “An order of committal to prison custody of Haytuddeen Awal Atiku (Acting Managing Director, FHA Homes Ltd)” for the same reason of disobeying the June 19, 2015 order of the court. Justice Esowe fixed July 8 for the hearing of the application.
In his main suit, Igbinoba stated that he was summoned to an emergency board meeting of the FHA Homes Ltd, at the instance of Al-Amin and he was at the meeting served with a letter “dated the same June 2, 2015 and highlighting unsubstantiated and frivolous allegations” on his person and office without being given “the opportunity to defend or at least be heard.”
He therefore asked the court to order his reinstatement to his office and declare his suspension as illegal, null, void and of no effect.
But Al-Amin had in a separate application asked the court to set aside the June 19, 2015 order as the plaintiff, Igbinoba, “did not disclose to this court the full facts of the case.”