An upper sharia court sitting in Dutse, yesterday ruled that the Islamic legal code has no immunity for anyone, including governors, despite the immunity they enjoy under section 308 of the 1999 Constitution.
Making the declaration yesterday in Dutse, Jigawa State capital, in a case brought against the state governor, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, over the disbursement of N30 billion allocation to 27 local government councils in the state, the presiding Khadi judge, Alhaji Auwalu Sani Taura observed that there is no such thing as immunity under the Sharia law.
In a judicial precedent which may put governors who introduced Sharia laws in their state in trouble, Taura, relying on verses of the Holy Quran and sayings (hadiths) of Prophet Muhammed, noted that as a Muslim everybody is compelled to be tried under the Sharia law, notwithstanding their status in society.
In the case brought against Turaki, by Alhaji Sule Lamido, the Judge noted that the Holy Quran, Surah Nisai verse 104 and 64, Surah Maida, verse 8 and Haggart verse 43 have given the court the right to entertain the case against the state governor.
He said that as a Muslim, the plaintiff has the right to sue the governor when he discovers something wrong, based on the sayings of Prophet Muhammed.
However, the judge struck out the substantive suit for improper filing. Taura quoted some chapters in the Quran to support his declaration. Some of these chapters included the fourth and fifth of the holy book citing Law No.7 of 2000 of Jigawa State and No. 1 of the 2001 version as his supporting references which gave jurisdiction to the court.
He said section 5 sub-sections 2 and 3 in part 3 of the constitution are other provisions that give his court jurisdiction.
He added that all Muslims, are equal before God.
The Khadi said the reason why his court cannot entertain the case was because the plaintiffs did not state categorically the amount each council in the state earned.
He said the plaintiff only gave a total figure of N30 billion. "You can't do this without stating how much each council has been allocated. In Islam, this cannot be tenable, and so the court cannot entertain such," he added.
Meanwhile, free-for-all fighting erupted between supporters of Governor Turaki and that of Lamido after the case was dismissed.
The fighting erupted when Lamido passed by the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) secretariat on his way to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat as both buildings are on the same street in the state capital.
Section 308 sub-section (2b) of the 1999 Constitution states that "Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this constitution but subject to sub-section (2) of this section -(a) no civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against a person to whom this section applies during his period of office.
(b) a person to whom this section applies shall not be arrested or imprisoned during that period either in pursuance of the processes of any court or otherwise and
(c) no process of any court requiring or compelling the appearance of a person to whom this section applies, shall be applied for or issued.
Sub section 3 of this section states that it applies to the President, Vice President, governors and their deputies. The 1999 Constitution supercedes any other law.
But the Supreme Court in the case between Chief Gani Fawehinmi versus Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, had ruled that the provisions of the section does not preclude the police from investigating charges against the affected persons even though no charges can be preferred against them during their tenure.
However, following the controversy which followed the interrogation of deputy governor of Delta State, Chief Benjamin Elue, over the discovery of some arms and ammunitions in one of his official vehicles, there have been open canvass for the immunity clause to either be totally expunged from the constitution or its effect to be reduced to cover only civil litigations.
Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, who wants the immunity clause expunged, said many governors had hidden under the provisions to commit heinous crimes.
Also, the National Judicial Commission had in a representation to the National Assembly urged that Section 308 should be limited to only civil matters.