Auctioner Drags BYSG To Court Over Missing Tractor

INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, addressing the international community on the 2015 Nigerian elections at Chatham House in London, recently.

An auctioneer licensed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja, Rasaki Adunbarin has dragged Bayelsa State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Thomas Commander before a Yenagoa High Court over three missing tractors.
The agricultural equipment, a Ford 5160 model tractor, rotary slasher and plough belonging to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were in the custody of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources before they went missing.
In the suit YHC/87/2013, Adunbarin is seeking a declaration that he is entitled to the retrieval of the three items from the defendant, and that the “purported transfer and/or sale of the above mentioned items to a 3rd party by the defendant is illegal, null and void.”
He is also seeking a declaration that the removal, transfer and/or sale is null and void, and an order of mandamus directing Commander to produce the items in serviceable condition.
The auctioneer,  in the statement of claim stated that the said items were “safe and intact” during the tenure of Commander’s predecessor, and that  he was duly briefed on the subject matter when he assumed office as commissioner.
According to him, after the  ministry relocated to its permanent site in Yenagoa, he was instructed to take inventory of all serviceable and non-serviceable equipment to determine those to be disposed off.
He said when he discovered that the three items were not available, he wrote to the commissioner but was ignored until a reminder was sent, after which, a meeting was arranged.
When the case came up for hearing before Timipre Ignatius Cocodia in Yenagoa High Court 5, a principal state counsel, Christopher Yekemwerigha raised a preliminary objection that Commander ought to be sued in his official capacity.
But counsel to the  auctioneer, Orudiakumo Kimsebi argued that the commissioner was sued in his personal capacity, and objected to his defence by a state lawyer.
The trial judge, Cocodia, however, adjourned the matter to February 18 for formal argument on the preliminary objection.