Kano State Chief Judge, Justice Nura Umar, has disregarded an invitation forwarded to him by the House of Assembly. An ad hoc committee of the state’s legislature had, in a letter dated July 26, 2021, summoned the jurist to appear before it on July 28.

The invitation, signed by the assembly’s Director of Legal, Nasidi Aliyu, The Guardian learnt, was intended to obstruct the ongoing legal action instituted by the suspended Chairman of Kano Anti-corruption Commission, Muhuyi Rimin-Gado, against the assembly.

Rimin-Gado had obtained an ex parte order from the state’s high court restraining the assembly from further investigating him.

Although, the assembly had ignored the court order with a resolution passed to the state government recommending the sack and prosecution of the embattled anti-graft agency boss, it received knock from the judiciary for contempt of court.

Confirming the development to The Guardian yesterday, spokesman for the state judiciary, Baba Ibrahim, disclosed that the CJ decided on his own not to honour or respond to the invitation.

Jibo said the judiciary “decided to keep mute on the issue since it has already passed,” adding that they decided to channel the issue to the chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Kano because they did not want to join issues with the legislators.

When contacted, the state’s NBA Chairman, Aminu Gadanya, said the CJ was right for not appearing before the committee.

“It comes as a surprise. I was shocked when I heard that a committee under the Kano State House of Assembly invited the head of judiciary, that is the Chief Judge of Kano State. They served him the invitation on Monday and expected him to appear before that committee on Wednesday. I learnt that the agenda for the invitation was in respect of an order granted by a high court judge in respect of a matter the state assembly is party to.

“NBA, as a promoter of rule of law, totally disagrees with them on the invitation itself. We have three arms of government and the constitution has provided the powers and functions of each one of them,” he said.

According to him, if it is for an oversight function they invited him, it will be an entirely different issue. On whether or not the NBA will take any action, the chairman said if the association receives a complaint, it would look into it to see whether there was professional misconduct or not.