ACN CANDIDATE DRAGS YAKOWA, 4 OTHERS TO COURT

A Kaduna-based legal practitioner, Auta Maisamari, has dragged Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and four others to court for dissolving the 23 councils of the state without conducting fresh election.

Others who were joined as co-defendants in the originating summons as filed by Maisamari's counsel, Mr. M. Abu in the High Court of the state were the Speaker, Kaduna State House of Assembly; attorney general of Kaduna State; commissioner for local government affairs, Kaduna State and the state Independent Electoral Commission.

The originating summons, which was filed on June 2, 2011, was made available to Daily Sun at the weekend.

The plaintiff, Auta Maisamari, representing Jema'a/Sanga Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, contested and lost the House of Representatives election in the last April polls on the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Maisamari prayed the court to declare that the defendants did not have the powers to make any law empowering them to appoint interim leadership for the 23 local government areas of the state in view of the provisions of Sections 7, 13 and 14 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.

He also asked the court to declare that the decision by the defendants to appoint secretaries of the 23 local government areas of the state to act as interim administrators of their respective councils was in breach of the constitutional provision which provided for democratically elected local government areas as entrenched in Section 7, 13 and 14.

The plaintiff wanted the court to place a perpetual injunction to restrain the defendants from appointing sole administrators and other interim leaders for the 23 councils of the state. Maisamari's other prayer for the court was to equally order the defendants to organise elections to fill the vacant positions in the leadership of the 23 councils of the state within 14 days of the delivery of judgment by the court.