From Umar Dankano, Yola
Impeached governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako, yesterday accused the Acting Chief Justice of the state, Justice Bobbo Umar, of frustrating a suit he instituted to challenge the constitution of a probe panel which indicted him.
In a statement by the Director of Press and Publicity to former Governor, Mallam Ahmad Sajoh, Nyako alleged that in an apparent move to sabotage the suit, the Acting CJ deemed it right to assign the case to Justice Ishaya,Banu, who is currently on leave and will resume duty on 15th September, 2014 after the panel have finished its sitting instead of the VacationJudge, Hon Justice Hafsatu Abdurraham, who should have been mandated to handle the case.
“It is a misnomer that the case has to be assigned to a Judge who is currently on leave and will resume after the panel has concluded its sittings instead of assigning it to the Vacation Judge who is the right person to handle the case which is a clear signal that the Acting CJ has shown the side he belongs to,” Sajoh said.
He said by the nature of the suit which is an expedited case, the suit should be given an expedited hearing as the panel has only four weeks to turn up its report and possibly indict Nyako as the whole set up was being scripted to indict the former Governor at all cost.
He said counsel to Murtala Nyako has filed an affidavit of urgency demanding that the suit should be expeditiously assigned and given accelerated hearing in view of the urgency and the time frame within which the panel will sit.
The former governor had filed a suit before a Yola High Court of Adamawa praying it to declare the setting up of the probe panel illegal saying that it was set in breach of extant laws of the federation particularly sections 128 and 129 of the 1999 constitution of the federal Republic as amended.
In the suit filed by the former governor dated 8th August, 2014, he prayed the court to dissolve the panel as he said the defendants have no power to set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate his administration without recourse to the state House of Assembly in line with the provision of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
