A Kano High court has fixed March 8, 2021, for ruling on a motion on notice before it seeking to amend the lists of claims and witnesses to be called at trial in a case between the state Governor, Abdulalhi Ganduje and a journalist, Jaafar Jaafar.
Governor Ganduje had dragged Jaafar before the court over a viral video released by an online media platform Daily Nigerian allegedly showing the governor stuffing his pockets with dollar bills purportedly from kickbacks from contractors.
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Ganduje had, through his counsels, filed the motion on November 10th last year seeking an order to file additional witnesses statements as well as other front-loaded processes.
At resumed sitting Thursday, Jaafar’s counsel, UU Etem, rejected the moves on the ground that it was an abuse of court processes.
However, Ganduje’s counsel, MN Duru, insisted that the motion was brought under order 24, rules 1,2 and 3 of the state high court civil procedure rules 2014.
The presiding Judge, Justice Suleiman Baba Namalam, then adjourned the matter to the said date for ruling and continuation of hearing after the heated arguments.
It could be recalled that in the series of videos released, the governor was shown allegedly receiving various amounts of kickbacks gratification amounting to about $5million.
The state government had since denied the videos and allegations of collection of such monies and filed a criminal case against the publisher and the medium.
