A Sokoto State High Court has issued an order restraining Governor Ahmed Aliyu from sacking two of the 15 district heads his government had earlier removed from their seats.
The order followed a suit separately filled by Alhaji Buhari Dahiru Tambuwal and Alhaji Abubakar Kassim, the District Heads of Tambuwal and Kebbe, respectively, who are among the traditional rulers removed by the state government over allegations of insubordination and aiding insecurity in the state.
In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Kabiru Ibrahim Ahmed, ordered Governor Ahmed Aliyu, the state Attorney General and the Sokoto Sultanate Council to revert to the status quo, pending the determination of the suite filed before him by the complainants, who were represented by Prof Ibrahim Abdullahi, SAN.
Justice Ahmed, through two orders, directed the defendants, their agents,
servants, privies or assigns or any person acting on their behalf to “maintain status quo and/or stay all actions and/or further actions in connection with all matters dealing with and or pertaining to the removal and/or dethronement of Districts Heads in Sokoto State”, particularly those of Kebbe and Tambuwal, pending the hearing and determination of the motion for interlocutory injunction duly filed before the court.
The development is coming on the heels of Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s bill for the amendment of the Local Government Law, affecting the appointment of district and village heads, to confer him with exclusive power to appoint traditional rulers.
Already, the sack of the 15 district heads and the proposed bill has generated swift reactions across the country, with Vice President Kashim Shettima calling on the Sokoto state government to regard the Sultan as, “an institution and an idea that must be preserved and protected,” while former a vice president and PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, demanded that traditional institutions be protected from the “excesses of state governors”.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), in two separate statements, warned Ahmed Aliyu to, “shelve the idea of removing the Sultan of Sokoto or whittling his powers”, insisting that, “by all intents and purposes”, the governor was targeting the monarch and planning to create a parallel Sultanate Council under the guise of the new law.
Meanwhile, the Sokoto state legislature had, last Wednesday, passed the bill for second reading and referred the matter to a House Committee. A public hearing on the bill is also scheduled for next Tuesday.
