A Kaduna State High Court has ordered the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai and the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammad Adamu to stop harassing the managing partner of Kaduna-based law firm, Gloria Ballason.
The court order was made Thursday, by Justice Hannatu Balogun while ruling on a motion ex-parte brought before the court by Ballason.
Ballason had dragged El-rufai and the IG before the court over her alleged incessant harassment by the state government and police officers. Also joined in the suit as co-defendant is the Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State,
Her prayers in the ex-parte motion include; “An interim order of this court requiring the respondents to maintain status quo by themselves, their agent, privies or assigns from taking further steps in connection with the matter or interfering with the freedom of the Applicant pending the determination of the applicant on notice.
“An order of this court for expeditious and accelerated hearing of the substantive application. Any other or further order this court may deem fit to make as the justice of this case demand.”
After hearing the argument of Ballason’s lawyer, M.D Jatau, Justice Balogun held, “I have seen the documents filed and I am satisfied that this application ought to be granted as it has merit. It is granted as prayed. The substantive matter has been fixed for 5/3/2020 for hearing.”
In an earlier petition she wrote to the police before filing the suit, Ballason had alleged that some police officers in that state have been monitoring her movement and activities since last year when she decided to represent Chidi Odinkaluin a suit involving the former chairman of National Human Rights Commission, and Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai.
She claimed that men of the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, visited her office on multiple occasions between November 27 and December 2019 without any reason.
Part of the petition reads: “I should state that the spate of harassment by persons who have identified themselves as policemen have left me threatened and concerned for my safety. I find it curious that all the persons who visited my offices or called trying to contact me are men that I do not know. The Kaduna State Police Command alone can explain why they choose to set hefty men after me. I can only assume there are no women in the Command.
“I represent a number of clients whose rights have been violated by the State Governor. At the end of a fully contested case in May 2017, the High Court of Kaduna State issued an order restraining the Governor and the Police from harassing me. Quite clearly, they feel they are above the law.
“This harassment has predictably created a hostile work environment for me as a practising lawyer.
“I am a Nigerian citizen doing what I can in a profession I chose for a country that I call my own. I am law-abiding and peaceful but I refuse to be silenced.”
