A Taraba State High Court sitting in Jalingo has awarded a fine of N300,000 against the Taraba State government.
The court also ruled that it had jurisdiction to entertain the case of the alleged arbitrary creation of Kwararafa Chiefdom out of Gassol Chiefdom as brought before it by Mallam Ibrahim Isah.
The ruling was given on Friday by the trial judge, Justice Dauda Buba, in response to an interlocutory objection by the defendants challenging the court's jurisdiction and the expiration of the period for filing the suit by the plaintiff.
Mallam Ibrahim Isah sued the Taraba State government, the state Attorney General, and Kwararafa Chiefdom in the High Court in 2018, to challenge the formation of Kwararafa Chiefdom out of Gassol Chiefdom by the state government.
U.D. Umar, counsel for the defendants, had
argued that the plaintiff filed the case outside the three-month statutory period allowed by law among others.
The counsel for the plaintiff, Barrister Saleh Wakili, accused the defendants of delaying the progress of the case.
The defendants are the Taraba State government, the Attorney General of the state, and Kwararafa Chiefdom.
Isah took the matter to court to challenge then-Governor Darious Ishaku’s creation of Kwararafa Chiefdom out of Gassol Chiefdom.
The trial judge, Justice Dauda Buba, adjourned the hearing on the matter to July 15, 2023.
Meanwhile, the Stakeholders and Elders Forum of Gassol 1 Constituency in the Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State, in March called on Governor Ishaku “to respect the order of the court and suspend all actions on the creation of Kwararafa Chiefdom and appointment of a new chief.”
This was contained in a press release issued by the spokesman for the forum, Hamman Tukur-Kawu.