Kano State House of Assembly has received the nomination of Mahmoud Balarabe, a lawyer, for screening and subsequent confirmation as substantive chairman of the state’s Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC).

Request for Balarabe’s confirmation, who has been on acting capacity, came despite the verdict of National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), which recognised Muhuyi Rimin-Gado as substantive chairman of the commission.

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, in the letter to the assembly, said appointment of Balarabe became pertinent following the vacuum created after the suspension and subsequent dismissal of Rimin-Gado.

The Speaker, Ibrahim Chideri, read Ganduje’s letter at plenary, yesterday. It reads: “Sequel to the existing vacancy for the office of the Chairman, Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission, which was occasioned by the suspension and subsequent dismissal of its former chairman, Muhuyi Rimin-Gado, on reason of alleged forgery and other infractions, there is need to fill the vacuum.

“Subsequently and in view of the above, I am pleased to forward the name of Mahmoud Balarabe for the appointment from acting to substantive chairman and hereby seek his screening and confirmation by the House of Assembly.”

Rimin-Gado had taken the state government, alongside the House of Assembly, Attorney General, Accountant General and police command to NICN to challenge his suspension, and subsequently secured judgment that recognised him as substantive chairman of the commission.

In the judgment delivered by Justice Oyejoju Oyewumi, on December 14, 2022, the court held that Rimin-Gado remained the substantive chairman of the commission and ordered that the N5,713,891.22 being his cumulative salaries from the date he (Rimin-Gado) was suspended till the date of judgment. Oyewumi also ordered that Rimin-Gado is equally entitled to be paid his salaries subsequently till the date the government decided to reinstate him.

But the government has failed to honour the order of the court, a development which compelled the claimant to institute notice of consequences of disobedience to order of the court against the state government. (The Guardian)

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