The Adamawa State High Court, presided over by Justice Musa Usman, has adjourned the case against the creation of Fufore Emirate Council to 3rd April 2025 to allow the defence counsel to reply to a cross-affidavit filed by the Adamawa State government in the ongoing suit.
The lead counsel for the plaintiffs, M. M. Nuruddeen (SAN), during today’s sitting, prayed the court to give him time to respond to a cross-affidavit filed by the state government through the Attorney General.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the court session, Nuruddeen noted, “We took adjournment last time because the state was supposed to respond within seven days.
“Today, they have applied properly under the rules of court for an extension of time, so we have agreed to their application and the extension was granted. We have no problems with that.
“However, they also annexed a brief of argument to their motion to which we need to reply because we have not had the time to look at it.
“The court has adjourned to 3rd April for us to file our reply and take the main motion,” he said.
Also speaking to newsmen, the Adamawa State Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General of the state, Afraimo Jingi, said, “Initially, the state had filed an application praying the court to strike out the suit because it was not properly constituted.”
However, he noted that based on their application, the plaintiff’s counsel came with another application that they wanted the issues raised to be referred to the Court of Appeal.
“We saw that it is not a proper case to be filed to the Court of Appeal, so we now brought up an application to file a counter-affidavit.
“We are out of time. What happened today is that our application for leave to file a counter-affidavit out of time was granted, and we also argued that this matter should not be referred to the Court of Appeal,” he said.
It can be recalled that in the wake of the creation of the Fufore Emirate Council, the trio of Musa Halilu Ahmed (Dujima Adamawa), Alhaji Mustapha Dahiru Mustapha (Yeriman Adamawa), and Alhaji Mustapha Ahmad (Sarki Noma Adamawa) approached the court to set aside the creation of the emirate council.
They stated that the creation of the new emirate would alienate the history, culture, and deep heritage of the Adamawa Emirate.
In the suit, the Adamawa State government, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the Attorney General of the state, Hapsat Abdulrahman, and the Emir of Fufore, Muhammad Sani Ribadu, were the defendants.
The creation of Fufore Emirate was greeted with a lot of anxiety and condemnation by a section of stakeholders in the Adamawa Emirate who noted that it circumvents the history, culture, and deep heritage of the people.
However, during the installation ceremony, the Governor, Ahmadu Umar Fintiri, defended his actions, describing the creation of the emirate as the wish and aspiration of the people, which will enhance unity and development in the newly created emirates and chiefdoms.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then