OLOYEDE KOLAWOLE, KANO
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has said that the state government will request the state legislature to invoke the “doctrine of necessity”, to enable it swear in the Vice-Chairman of the Garko Local Government Council in the state as acting chairman.
This is to avert a vacuum following “ongoing investigation into the whereabouts of the chairman, Mr. Hamza Sa’id, who got missing in a stampede during the holy pilgrimage, in Saudi Arabia, last September.
Ganduje, who announced this during the swearing-in of the Chairman of the Kabo Local Government, Mamuda Idris Kabo, explained that, at the moment, a new chairman would not be appointed for Garko because there was no legal proof to certify him dead.
“We cannot assume that he is not alive because we have no evidence to suggest that. We will, however, continue to liaise with the Saudi authorities until we have confirmed his whereabouts,” he said.
Ganduje, however, expressed satisfaction that the people of the local government were cooperating with the vice-chairman, who was working in acting capacity, noting that the action was a pointer to the fact that the relationship between the missing chairman and his deputy had been very cordial.
Turning to the new chairman of the Kabo Local Government, the governor noted that he was elevated from the position of vice-chairman because the erstwhile chairman, Murtala Sule Garo, was appointed a commissioner and member of the State Executive Council.
He charged the new chairman to concentrate on people-oriented projects and carry along all his councillors in the management of the local government, to achieve optimum success