Court restrains Police from harassing suspended Kano anti-corruption chair, Muhuyi Magaji

By Baba Aminu

The National Industrial Court on Wednesday ordered the Kano State Police Command from meddling in the affairs of the suspended chairman of Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission, Mr Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Oyejoju Oyewumi, stated that the Commissioner of Police as the sixth defendant in the suit, should refrain from “perpetually interfering in the affairs of the claimant on any matter affecting his workplace.

The court, in addition, ordered the State Government to pay the claimant his entitlements denied him during the period of his suspension of monthly salary of N326,508.07.

The Judge further directed that the acting Chairman of the Commission, Mr Mahmud Balarabe, had no business in the suit which was within the exclusive competence of the court to decide.

The court further dismissed the defendants’ preliminary objection which bordered on the jurisdiction of the court.

The counsel to all the defendants, Mr Abdulsalam Saleh and Mr Aliyu Fagge, had raised the objection on the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter, submitting that the matter ought to have been filed before the Kano Division of the court.

Read Also: 2023: UK announces plan to recruit Nigerian teachers

The counsel had unanimously averred that the cause of action as well as the parties were in Kano and therefore sought in the objection for the matter to be transferred to Kano.

The claimant’s counsel, Mr Muhammad Tola, in response to the objection, submitted that the suit was filed in Abuja because of the security situation in Kano between the claimant’s and the State Government supporters.

The court having delved into the issue of objection and dismissing it, also stated that the claimant’s prayer for the court to declare that his suspension was malicious, ultra vires, null and void, did not succeed.

The judge also stated that the claimant’s prayer for a declaration that the fifth defendant acting as chairman of the commission was illegal, ultra vires, unlawful did not succeed as well as his prayer for payment of general damages because of a pending suit before a High Court in Kano.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Rimingado instituted the suit challenging his suspension against the Kano State Government and five others.

Read Also: BUK gets 34 Professors, Nasir Fagge, Usman Abubakar, Ahmad Magaji, among others

The other defendants in the suit are the Attorney General of Kano, Kano State House of Assembly and the state Accountant General.

Others are Balarabe as acting chairman and Kano State Commissioner of Police as first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth defendants, respectively.

NAN also recalls that the Kano State House of Assembly suspended the claimant as the substantive chairman of the commission on July 5, 2021.

Subsequently, on July 26, 2021, a letter was recommended for his dismissal and immediate arrest and prosecution over an alleged forgery.

The claimant therefore approached the court praying for the reliefs. (NAN)