Kano: Court dismisses suit against appointment of LG caretaker committees

A Federal High Court in Kano has struck out a suit that sought to stop the state governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, from appointing caretaker committees to oversee the affairs of the 44 local government areas of the state.

The suit had also sought an order of court to direct the federal government to stop the remittance of statutory allocations to the local government areas following the expiration of the tenure of their elected chairmen.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, the court, presided over by Justice Abdullahi Muhammad Liman, said it received the notice of withdrawal by the applicant, Haruna Abbas Babangida, a resident of Shanono Local Government Area of the state.

However, the applicant’s counsel, Abdu Fagge, told the court that he was not aware of nor served a copy of the withdrawal notice. Responding, the defense counsel, H. H. Suleiman, the Deputy Director, Civil Litigation, told the court that he was served notice of the withdrawal by the applicant.

Ruling, the judge held that since the court was in receipt of a duly signed notice of withdrawal from the applicant, the suit was thereby dismissed.

Daily Trust reported that the court last week ordered parties to maintain the status quo in the suit pending the hearing and final determination of the substantive suit. But a day after the court’s order, the state governor went ahead with the inauguration and swearing-in of the caretaker committees for each of the local government areas.