In fulfillment of his pledge to lead the fight against Corruption from the front, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu SAN, made an appearance for the Commission at the Kano State High Court 2, as the lead counsel in a case of allegations of corruption in 44 local government councils of Kano State.
Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu stated that he was primarily in Kano “to fulfill his earlier promise of leading his men from the front to serve as morale booster in the fight against corruption, considering the importance of the case at hand”.
He added that “These people are challenging our jurisdiction to investigate them, and went ahead to secure an order restricting us from further investigations, and also filed a case for contempt of Court”.
“To us, the Apex Court had already ruled that there shall be nothing like caretaker Chairmen across all local government areas in the country, except those democratically elected”.
“As far as we are concerned, these people do not have legal right to sue the commission. I am here as a lawyer and Chairman of ICPC to ensure the apex court order is enforced to the letter. We must not allow people to use the court to hide from their crimes” he said.
By an originating motion on notice, the applicants filed a suit under the Fundamental Rights, Enforcement Procedures Rules 2019, challenging the powers of ICPC to invite and investigate the activities of the 44 local government councils in Kano State.
The ground of their application is that the said investigation by ICPC, violates their right under chapter 4 of 1999 constitution, especially right against double jeopardy as they are already being investigated by the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission.
ICPC has responded by a counter affidavit and notice of preliminary objection challenging the competence of the suit in its entirety given that the applicants are unknown to law on the premise that they are caretaker chairmen and not elected local government chairmen.
The case was for hearing before Justice Ibrahim Musa Karaye on the 12th September 2024, however, the matter did not go on because the applicants filed new process which they are yet to serve ICPC.
In view of the fact that the court is a vacation court the matter will be remitted back to the Chief Judge for re-assignment and resumption of trial in another court.