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Governor Bello’s judicial commission of enquiry may have hit a brick wall as a Kogi state high court, sitting in Lokoja, on Tuesday stopped the probe of past leaders of the State.
The court asked the parties to maintain status quo pending the determination of the motion seeking injunction to restrain the commission from probing the governments of former governors Ibrahim Idris and Idris Wada.
Bello had instituted the commission to cover 2003 till date leaving out the the period from 1999 till 2003 a move many perceived was a vendata mission aimed at the PDP administration of Governor Idris Wada and Ibrahim Idris.
Wada had filed an application for injunction alongside with the originating summons to restrain the judicial commission of inquiry from further sitting pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Justice Henry Olusuyi, while ruling on application for adjournment brought by the Attorney General of the state, Mohammed Ibrahim, who announced his appearance for Governor Yahaya Bello, said the parties should go back to the situation before the commencement of hostilities.
At the resumed hearing of the suit filed by Wada challenging the constitution of the probe panel by Bello, his counsel prayed the court for more time to allow him study the brief.
He appealed to the court for a short adjournment to enable him file his reply and counter affidavit to the application by the plaintiff.
But counsel to the former governor, Chief Chris Uche SAN, objected to the application, arguing that he was out of time to make such pleadings.
He said that on the face of the papers filed and served on the respondents, it was clearly stated that the motion for injunction would be taken on Tuesday.
Olusuyi granted the prayer of counsellor the governor and adjourned sitting to December 15, 2016 to enable the respondents filed their papers and prevent them from being shut out.
He, however, ordered the parties to the suit to maintain status quo as far as the matter was concerned.
