Court Restrains Sokoto Govt from Removing District Heads

*Directs parties to maintain status quo

Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto

As the controversy on the proposed traditional institution law rages in Sokoto State, the state’s 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 stool.

The order was sought seperately 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 Sokoto State Government, on the allegation of insubordination and aiding insecurity in the state.

The presiding judge, Justice Kabiru Ibrahim Ahmed, however ordered the Governor of Sokoto State, Attorney General and the Sokoto Sultanate Council to revert to status quo, pending the determination of the suit 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 appertaining 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 as 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, is before the state Assembly.

Already, the sack of the 15 district heads and the proposed bill in Sokoto has generated many reactions across the country, with the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, cautioning the Sokoto State Government to regard the Sultan as an idea that must be preserved and protected, while former Vice President and PDP presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, demanded that traditional institutions must 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 and insisting that the governor was targeting the monarch and planning to create a parallel Sultanate Council under the guise of a new law.

Sokoto State legislature had last Wednesday passed the bill at its second reading and referred it to a House Committee.

A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for next Tuesday.