The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Kano Judicial Division, on Tuesday adjourned further hearing in the suits filed by former Kano State commissioners seeking to stop the state government from retrieving official vehicles allocated to them while in office.
Our sources reports that the court, presided over by Justice Mahmood Abba Namtari, also awarded a cost of N200,000 against the respondents in each of the five sister cases after their counsel requested an adjournment to enable them to file the necessary processes.
At the resumed sitting, counsel to the Kano State Government, Barrister S. U. Jibril, informed the court that the respondents were not ready to proceed with the matter.
He told the court that he had only been briefed by the office of the first defendant on Monday afternoon and had not had sufficient time to prepare the required documents.
“We were briefed yesterday around 2:30 p.m. by the office of the first defendant. We made efforts to ensure that our papers are ready, but we could not complete them. We are asking for another date,” Jibril told the court.
However, counsel to the former commissioners, Suraj Sa’ed, SAN, said they had no objection to the application for adjournment but requested that the court award costs to compensate the claimants.
Sa’ed urged the court to award N1 million as costs in each of the suits, arguing that the respondents had been duly served with the court processes and should have prepared their response.
In response, Jibril opposed the request for cost, arguing that the respondents were still within the time allowed by law to file their processes.
“My lord, we should not be considered for cost. All the respondents were served on the 3rd day of March, and we are still within time to file our papers,” he submitted.
Justice Namtari, however, noted that the court’s records indicated that the respondents had been served earlier, on February 26.
The government’s counsel further told the court that the case involved several documents and required adequate time to prepare, adding that the request was the first adjournment in the matter.
Despite the objection to the cost request, the court awarded N200,000 costs against the respondents in each of the five sister cases and adjourned the matter to April 28, 2026, for hearing.
