A Kogi State High Court, sitting in Lokoja, yesterday fixed February 23 to rule on a suit brought before it by the former governor of the state, Capt Idris Ichalla Wada, challenging the composition of the commission of inquiry set up by Governor Yahaya Bello to probe past administrations in the state.
The court is expected to deliver its ruling on all the motions brought by parties and judgment on the substantive suit.
The presiding judge, Justice Henry Olusuyi, reserved ruling at the resumed sitting of the court, after listening to arguments by parties on the motions filed to prove their cases.
The former governor had approached the court to challenge the composition of the commission put in place by Governor Yahaya Bello to probe his government and that of his predecessor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris. The suit was challenging the validity of the instrument used to establish the commission and the venue of its sitting, saying he could not get judgment from the arrangements.
Wada, therefore, asked the court to stop the commission from investigating him.
His counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN, told the court that the instrument setting up the commission gave it a “bogus mandate.”
He said the commission was saddled with investigating contracts awarded and recovering looted funds, adding that a commission of inquiry is a fact-finding one that had no power to prosecute or recover funds.
But counsel to the commission, A. M. Aliu, SAN, told the court that the arguments against the instrument establishing the commission were baseless, saying the plaintiff was wrong to have asked the court to do away with the document.
Credits: Itodo Daniel Sule | Daily Trust
