KANO— THE chairman of Kano Judicial Commission of Inquiry setup by Governor Ibrahim Shekarau administration to look into some financial activities of the last administration, Justice A.T. Badamasi has rejected the request by counsel of the former governor of the state now minister of Defence to fix another day, insisting he must appear before the commission.
Justice Badamasi gave the directive Tuesday while responding to a letter received from the counsel to the minister, Barrister A.B Mahmoud(SAN) and Barrister Afe Babalola requesting for another date because they had filed a motion in another court.
According to him, the commission cannot fix another date because the case had suffered several setbacks because of the non appearance of the minister in the commission, and that the commission is also winding up it’s public sitting to meet up with the time frame given to them.
Enumerating the achievements of the commission, Justice Badamasi said 65 witnesses invited appeared before the commission while over 50 exhibits were tendered during the various sittings at the commission.
In a similar development, the Kano state high court which last week dismissed the case and ordered that the minister should appear before the state commission of Inquiry has adjourned hearing for Friday 29th October, following an application made by the counsel to the minister of Defence, Barrister A.S.Awomolo (SAN) and two others.
Making the adjournment, Justice Saka Yusuf said though the court had already delivered its judgment on the matter, the hearing for the stay of action request by them will be for Friday to enable the court study the application.
Earlier, while making the application the counsel to the minister, A.S Awomolo (SAN) prayed the court to stay action pending the determination of the fresh appeal they filed in a Kaduna court of Appeal to restrain the commission from compelling the minister to appear before it.
It will be recalled that the minister of Defence who was the former governor of Kano state was requested by the judicial commission setup by the present administration to look into some of the financial activities of his administration, but the minister requested that his lawyer should stand for him, and the commission refusal made him seek for court protection which suffered defeat last week.
