A Federal High Court sitting in Kano has postponed the hearing of a suit seeking to halt the statutory allocation of funds to all 44 local government councils in Kano State.
The matter was adjourned on Monday, April 14, and will resume on May 26 for the hearing of all pending applications.
The case was instituted by Abdullahi Abbas, Aminu Aliyu-Tiga, and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Their legal representative, Sunday Olowomoran, had filed a motion ex parte dated October 28 and submitted on November 1, 2024.
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaration that the chairmen of the 44 councils, listed as the 12th to 55th respondents, were not democratically elected in accordance with Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
In a previous ruling on October 23, 2024, the court had already put a halt to the scheduled local government elections, initially slated for October 26, 2025, pending the proper reconstitution of the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC), which the court had dissolved for being partisan.
The respondents in the current suit include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Accountant-General of the Federation, Minister of Finance, Auditor General of the Federation, Attorney General of the Federation, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Kano State Government, Attorney General of Kano State, KANSIEC, and the 44 local government councils.
In court on Monday, counsel to the applicants, Abdul Adamu-Fagge, SAN, informed Justice Simon Amobeda that he received two applications on April 11 at around 4:00 p.m.—one seeking joinder and another requesting a stay of proceedings until the outcome of an ongoing case at the Court of Appeal.
“Their application is not ripe for hearing. We filed a counter-affidavit. My Lord, the parties seeking to be joined are not necessary parties,”; he argued.
Meanwhile, counsel Sabiu Sammani-Lawan, representing the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), National Union of Teachers, and health workers, confirmed their application for joinder, dated November 20, 2024.
Similarly, Mustapha Hussain, counsel to the elected local government chairmen, submitted an application on April 13 requesting to be joined in the suit.
Femi Falana, SAN, representing the Kano State Attorney-General, did not oppose the application. He noted, “The outcome of the Court of Appeal will determine the faith of the matter.”;
Other parties, including CBN’s counsel B. D. Uche, KANSIEC’s counsel Ibrahim Wangida, and the 7th defendant’s lawyer, H. M. Ma’aruf, also raised no objections to the joinder request and the request for adjournment.
Justice Amobeda subsequently admitted the new parties as the 56th, 57th, 58th, and 59th respondents in the case.
He also commented on a peculiar development regarding a motion on notice from Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, representing the Kano State Government.
“This application looks so strange in legal practice and procedure. Awomolo ought to have just written a letter instead of a motion on notice,”; the judge remarked.
“The court shall be mindful and wait for the outcome of the appellant court,”; he added.
Justice Amobeda ordered the newly admitted parties to file and serve all court processes ahead of the next adjourned date, warning that, “Any party who serves their processes on the adjournment date will not be heard.”;
The case will now continue on May 26, when all outstanding applications are expected to be heard.
