Court adjourns hearing on suit seeking to stop Kano LGs allocation
The absence of the 11th Defense counsel, John Baiyeshea SAN, on Tuesday, stalled the hearing of a suit seeking to stop statutory allocations to the 44 Local Government Councils of Kano State.
SolaceBase reports that the plaintiffs are Abdullahi Abbas, Aminu Aliyu-Tiga, and the All Progressive Congress(APC), through their counsel Sunday Olowomoran Esq, filed a motion exparte dated Oct.28, and filed Nov.1, 2024.
The defendants are CBN, Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Accountant-General of the Federation, Minister of Finance, Auditor General of the Federation, and Attorney General of the Federation.
Read Also: 50% Tariff Hike: Telecom subscribers to challenge NCC’s decision in court
Others are the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Kano State Government, Attorney General Kano, Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) and the 44 Kano local governments.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to restrain the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Accountant-General of the Federation from releasing statutory funds to Kano’s 44 local government councils.
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaration that the 12th to 55th(44 local governments) respondents are not democratically elected and constituted pursuant to section 7(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
At the resumed sitting, on Tuesday, at the Federal High Court in Kano, the presiding judge, Justice Simon Amobeda informed the court that counsel to KANSIEC, John Baiyeshea, SAN, was indisposed citing medical reasons and had sent a letter requesting an adjournment.
He ordered that all applications requiring a response be filed and ready before the next adjourned date and adjourned the matter until March 4th, 2025 for a hearing.
Counsel to the Kano State Attorney General, Femi Falana, SAN, informed the court that the plaintiffs had served them with six processes this morning.
Falana, along with Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, counsel to the Kano State Government; B. D. Uche, counsel to the first, third, and seventh respondents; and H. M. Ma’aruf, did not object to the adjournment.
Responding, Mr Sadiqu Sammani-Lawan, Counsel representing parties seeking to be joined in the suit, indicated the interest of his clients.
“The interest of our client is very fundamental. They are the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), the National Union of Teachers, and health workers.
“The allocation of the federal government goes directly to these employees that are more than 60,000 in the state. If they are not joined in this suit there will be a problem” he said
Comments are closed.