Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has accused Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Kaduna of bias and has taken his complaint to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.
El-Rufai’s petition requests that his case, currently overseen by Justice Aikawa, be reassigned to another judge. This follows a suit he filed in June 2024, challenging a report by the Kaduna State House of Assembly that accused him of misappropriating ₦423 billion in public funds.
In his fundamental rights case against the Kaduna Assembly, El-Rufai argues that the Assembly’s report violated his constitutional right to a fair hearing. He has asked the court to declare the report null and void.
On Thursday, Justice Aikawa adjourned the case after hearing objections from the respondents, in the absence of El-Rufai’s counsel, Abdulhakeem Mustapha. This decision prompted El-Rufai to petition for the case’s transfer, claiming that Justice Aikawa’s decision to proceed without his lawyer’s presence demonstrated extreme bias and denied him a fair hearing.
