The National Industrial Court of Nigeria in Kano and hearing the case of former commissioners’ suit on vehicles retrieval, has awarded N200,000 costs against the Kano State Government in each of the five sister cases and adjourned the matter to April 28, 2026, for hearing.
The court adjourned further hearing in the suits filed by former commissioners and members of the Executive Council seeking to stop the state government from retrieving official vehicles allocated to them while in office.
The presiding judge, Justice Mahmood Abba Namtari, also awarded a cost of N200,000 against the respondents in each of the five sister cases after their counsel requested an adjournment to enable them file the necessary processes.
At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, counsel to the Kano State Government, Barrister S. U. Jibril, informed the court that the respondents were not ready to proceed with the matter.
He told the court that he had only been briefed by the office of the first defendant on Monday afternoon and had not had sufficient time to prepare the required documents.
“We were briefed yesterday around 2:30 p.m. by the office of the first defendant. We made efforts to ensure that our papers are ready, but we could not complete them. We are asking for another date,” Jibril argued.
However, counsel to the former commissioners, Suraj Sa’ed, SAN, said they had no objection to the application for adjournment but requested that the court award costs to compensate the claimants.
Sa’ed, however, urged the court to award N1 million as costs in each of the suits, arguing that the respondents had been duly served with the court processes and should have prepared their response.
