COURT SETS ASIDE DISSOLUTION OF COMMISSIONS, ORDERS GOV TO PAY MEMBERS 7 MONTHS SALARIES

The High Court 111 sitting in Gusau has set aside, the purported dissolution of Zamfara State House of Assembly Service Commission and State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC).

The Court ordered Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar to pay salaries and other allowances to the dissolved members of the two commissions from June to December.

While delivering judgment, Justice Bello Aliyu said, since the governor unconstitutionally dissolved the two commissions members, they were entitled to their salaries and other benefits from June 2011 the day they were dissolved to today when the judgment was passed.

The judge who spent three hours delivering the judgment which the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Garba Gajam appeared for the dependents, ruled that, after careful reading of the originating summon, the decision of the first dependant (State Governor) was wrong and illegal.

He sighted similar cases of Kwara state governor and the Borno state governor vs commissions members that were constitutionally appointed but were then dissolved, disclosed that they can only be dissolved by the support of 2/3 of the majority members of the state House of Assembly. According to the judgment, the dissolution of the 2 commissions in the state was illegal, unconstitutional and it is null and void. Justice Bello Aliyu ruled that the purported dissolution of the plaintiffs by the first dependant or any assigned person was hereby set aside.

Daily Sun recalled that in a suit no. ZMS/G/55/2011, Filed by counsel to the plaintiffs John C. Shaka, supported by Sadiq Wakkala and Musibau Salahudeen before the High Court, the 15 members of the two commissions disclosed that their dissolution was illegal and unlawful.

The aggrieved commission members challenged the State Governor whether upon a proper construction of the provision of Zamfara State House of Assembly Service Commission law 2010, the commission could be dissolved by the governor or any other person who may act on his behave.