Court Nullifies Gusau’s Removal as Zamfara Deputy Governor

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court (FHC) Wednesday, voided the removal of Mr Mahdi Gusau as the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State.

The court, in a judgment, held that the removal was illegal, unlawful, null and void and consequently set aside all the steps and actions taken by the House of Assembly, former Governor Bello Matawalle and the state’s Chief Judge.

According to the judgment, it was wrong of the respondents to carry on with the purported removal of Gusau while the matter was still pending in court.

Consequently, the court made an order restoring Gusau as Deputy Governor of Zamfara State.

“Once parties have turned their dispute over to the court for determination, the right to resort to self-help ends.

“So, It is not permissible for one of the parties to take any step of complete helplessness, or which may give the impression that the court is being used as a mere subterfuge, to tie the result of litigation and the appropriate order of court before acting further,” it said.

Matawalle, the three state’s senators, members of House of Representatives and that of the House of Assembly had all defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 29, 2021.

Following their defection, the PDP and Gusau, the then deputy governor, who did not defect along with them, had in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/650/2021, asked the court to declare their seats vacant having abandoned the party through which they got into the positions of power.

Meanwhile, the court had on July 19, 2021, restrained the House of Assembly from proceeding with its planned removal of Gusau as deputy governor.

The court gave the order following an ex parte application brought by the PDP’s lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, in which he canvassed that the House of Assembly, Matawalle and others were planning to remove Gusau who refused to defect to APC.

Despite the order of the court, Gusau was removed by the House of Assembly after receiving the report of the investigative panel constituted by the state Chief Judge, Kulu Aliyu.

The plaintiffs, however, filed a motion on notice seeking an order restoring the status quo of Gusau wholly to the position as at July 8, 2021 when the suit was commenced, irrespective of the merits as might be ultimately decided in the case, and in particular setting aside all the steps taken by the defendants in furtherance of the purported impeachment proceedings.