Blame Gov Yusuf over impending blockage of Kano LG allocation — Group

The Alliance for Good Governance (AGG) has expressed concern over the likelihood of the federal government blocking the release of statutory allocations to the 44 local councils of Kano State.

AGG National Coordinator, Malam Tanko Musa, in a statement on Monday, remarked that their fear was based on the realization that the Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf-led administration’s executive recklessness went ahead to conduct the local council poll in breach of the extant provision of the law. This is a clear case of contempt of the courts.

The pro-democracy group argued that the outcome of the local council poll cannot stand, as it is trite knowledge in law that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stay there, as it will surely collapse.

AGG warned of impending constitutional anarchy since the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), which faulted the entire process in the lead-up to the conduct of the council poll, would not sit by and allow the reign of impunity in the state.

“Our genuine fear is, what if the APC, which put up a successful effort to stop the local councils’ poll, approaches the court again to prevail on the federal government to freeze Kano State local councils’ allocation since they cannot allow monies meant for the people of the state to be administered by the wrong hands,” they warned.

“It is the citizens in the 44 local councils who would be denied their monthly salaries and other welfare incentives that would suffer the consequences of Governor Yusuf’s action. For us, this is politics taken too far. All we expected the Governor to have done was to adhere to the rule of law.

“Nigerians are watching; allocation to the 44 local councils belongs to the people of the state. It’s not the private property of anyone or groups of persons under the guise of the Kwankwasiyya movement. Governors will come and go, but the people would always be there to tell the stories.”

Recall that Justice Simon Amobeda had restrained INEC from issuing voter registers to KANSIEC while ordering the security agencies, including the police, DSS, and civil defence, from participating in the proposed election.

The court ruled that the KANSIEC chairman and other members of the commission are card-carrying members of the ruling New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and are also not civil servants above grade level 14.

The court held that the defendants being card-carrying members of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and in partisan politics is contrary to Section 197 (1) (b) and Section 200 (1) (a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and are not qualified to hold such positions in the state electoral body.

But in defiance of the court order, the Kano State government approached the Kano State High Court, which issued a counter order on Friday, directing KANSIEC to go ahead with the conduct of the local council poll.

The court, in a judgment by Justice Sanusi Ma’aji, issued the order in a matter filed by KANSIEC against the APC and 13 other defendants.

The court held that KANSIEC is empowered by the provisions of the Constitution to conduct, supervise, and hold local government elections across the 44 council areas of the state.

Justice Ma’aji held that any attempt to truncate the process of conducting the poll amounts to nullity.