Gwandu Emirate Tussle: SAN seeks probe of Supreme Court’s two-year adjournment of appeal

A legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Mike Ahamba, has called for investigation into circumstances leading to a two-year adjournment in the hearing of an appeal in respect of the Gwandu Emirate headship by the Supreme Court.

The apex court had on November 29, 2021, ordered a two-year adjournment of hearing in appeal challenging the five-year old order of the Court of Appeal, Sokoto Division, which had reinstated H.R.H. Alhaji Mustapha Haruna Jokolo, as the 19th Emir of Gwandu, to November 2023.

Justices on the panel that ordered the two-year adjournment were Olukayode Ariwoola (presiding), Amina Augie, John Okoro, Abdu Aboki and Emmanuel Agim.

In his reaction to the adjournment, Ahamba however, called on the Bar to convene a discussion on the issue and to investigate the real causes of the long adjournment and delay in dispensation of justice, particularly at the Supreme Court, with a view to finding solution in the interest of justice.

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“Our courts are congested, the Supreme Court too is congested with appeals. Nobody can explain, they say its workload, but one has to investigate the causes of long adjournments.

“We must find out why it is so now. I hope the Bar will one day call for a discussion on the issue. The truth is that the Supreme Court is congested,” he added.

The November 29 sitting was for the court to hear a motion for substitution of the names of deceased kingmakers in the three appeals marked SC2/2013 (Attorney-General of Kebbi State and others against Alhaji Mustapha Haruna Jokolo); SC314/2016(Alhaji Muhammadu Iliyasu Bashar against Alhaji Mustapha Haruna Jokolo & anor); and SC266/2017(Governor of Kebbi State and others against Alhaji Mustapha Haruna Jokolo.

The briefs for the appeals were filed in 2019 and consolidated.

Jokolo was deposed in 2005 and he promptly went to court to challenge his dethronement.

In 2014, a Kebbi State High Court 6, sitting in Birnin Kebbi, ordered his immediate reinstatement, having been satisfied he was illegally deposed.

In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Abbas Ahman said the deposition was contrary to law and that due process was not followed.

Not satisfied with the judgment, Kebbi State Government and Jokolo’s successor, filed an appeal challenging the decision of the Kebbi State High Court.

In a unanimous judgment passed in April 2016, the three judges of the appellate court led by Justice Tunde Awotoye held that the 2005 deposition of the Emir by the then Governor of the state, Senator Adamu Aliero contravened sections 6 and 7 of the Chief Appointment and Deposition Law of the State because the Governor neither made an inquiry into the allegation against the Emir nor consulted the Kebi State’s Council of Chiefs before arriving at his decision.

The Kebbi State Government and Jokolo’s successor approached the Supreme Court for a final decision.

Specifically, the appeals before the Supreme Court were aimed at reviewing the verdicts of the two lower courts to affirm or deny that Kebbi State Government contravened sections 6 and 7 of the Chief Appointment and Deposition Law of the state because the governor neither made an inquiry into the allegation against the Emir nor consulted the state’s council of chiefs before arriving at his decision.