ADC Crisis: Sokoto High Court Fines Party Counsel

On Monday, Senior Counsels engaged in a heated exchange as the Federal High Court in Sokoto fined the All Democratic Congress (ADC) counsel and postponed the ongoing leadership dispute to July 22, 2026, for further hearing.

This followed a ruling by the Presiding Judge, Justice Ahmad Mahmud Gama, on an application filed before the Court by the Lead Counsel for the 1st Defendant, Dr Sulaiman Usman, SAN.

Barrister Salmanu Jabo, who stood in for Usman, had earlier filed an application for the adjournment of the matter, sequel to the absence of his principal, whom he said was unavoidably absent attending to other critical issues relating to the suit.

Jabo, however, told the Court that he had the express authority to stand in for his principal only and had no authority if the case proceeded as demanded by the Lead Counsel to the Plaintiff, Barrister Mathew Burkaa, SAN.

Jabo said he was incompetent to proceed with the hearing on Monday as he had filed three pending processes before the Court that were not served on all the parties, insisting that service on all parties is a fundamental right.

According to Jabo, proceeding with the matter would be prejudicial, and the principle of fair hearing would be trampled upon.

The Lead Counsel for the 2nd and 3rd Defendants, Prof. Ibrahim Abdullahi, SAN, who did not object to the application for an adjournment by Counsel for the 1st Defendant, urged the Court to grant it in the interest of justice and fair play.

Ibrahim drew the attention of the Court to Order 26, Rule 4 of the Federal High Court Rules, which provides that a person served with processes has seven days within which to respond.

Burkaa, who said he was ready for the day’s proceedings, maintained that the application for adjournment was incompetent.

Burkaa further averred that the serial requests for adjournments by Counsel to the defendants amounted to unnecessary delay tactics.

The Learned Silk, therefore, urged the Judge to strike out the application for adjournment and allow the proceedings to be sustained.

However, after heated legal arguments, Justice Gama granted the application and adjourned the matter to July 22, 2026.

Justice Gama said: “It is correct that all parties must be served so that they can appropriately respond. Failure to do that is a violation of the principle of fair hearing.”

He adjourned the matter to July 22, 2026, but imposed a fine of N500,000 on the Counsel for the 1st Defendant, to be paid to the Court.

Justice Gama also directed the Counsel for the 1st Defendant to pay the air transportation costs of the Counsel for the Plaintiff upon the production of receipts for air fares and other related sundry costs.

Speaking further, Barrister Jabo said: “So, we made an application for adjournment on the ground that we have filed some processes and then other parties in the suit, particularly the 4th and 5th defendants, were not served with the processes.

“So, we made the application for adjournment in the interest of justice in that regard.

“And then my Lord made a ruling that the application is granted. He went ahead to impose a N500,000 fine on us and also ordered us to settle all the flight bills of the Counsel for the Plaintiff.

“The fine is to be paid to the Court, and the other costs when the Plaintiff supplies the receipts or evidence of payments from Lagos to Sokoto.”