From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna.
A High Court sitting in New Bussa, Niger state has ruled against the Niger state government and its state Assembly in the suit filed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), 14 other registered political parties , and 5 local government councilors over the reduction of the tenure of local governments in state.
The presiding Judge, Justice Mohammed Mohammed, however, ruled that the state House of Assembly in particular lacked the power to amend the local government (amendment ) law 2016 of Niger state published as Niger legal notice No1 as it did to which Governor Abubakar Sani Bello appended his signature to make it become law.
Also, the SDP and 19 others had initially initiated the suit by way of originating summons on November 15, 2017, but amended their process pursuant to an application dated 7th December which was filed before the court on 11th December and was deemed amended on 14th December 2017.
In a 37 page judgment which lasted almost 3 hours, Justice Mohammed Mohammed held that the failure of the 1st defendant to comply with the constitutional requirement of amending the local government law 2001 rendered the amended law “unconstitutional invalid and lacks legal status”
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