Governor Yusuf fired the commissioner after he asked tribunal judges to choose between money or their lives.
Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has sacked the Commissioner for Lands, Adamu Aliyu, following his remarks deemed threats to the lives of tribunal judges in the state.
This comes as residents of Kano await the judgement of the governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The All Progressive Congress (APC) is challenging the victory of Governor Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), and the three-member panel of the tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay has reserved a ruling for a date yet to be announced.
Amid the wait, Aliyu was caught making what can be described as unguarded remarks at a political gathering.
The sacked commissioner warned judges in the state to choose between money or their lives over claims that the judges had been bought.
Addressing NNPP members on Thursday, September 14, 2023, Aliyu said, “Any judge that allows himself to be used and collect bribes and pass judgment that is not right, we want to tell him he must choose between his life and the bribe money he collected.”
“You have seen the conflict (banditry) in Zamfara, Kaduna, and Katsina,” he warned.
“I swear because of this governorship seat, everyone will die. The conflict that will start in Kano will be deadlier than the ones in those states and Borno.”
But in a statement on Friday, the Commissioner for Information, Baba Dantiye, distanced Yusuf from Aliyu’s utterances, emphasising that the state governor doesn’t only respects judges but also holds them in high esteem and, therefore, would not condone any disrespect to them.
Aside from the commissioner, the governor also sacked his Special Advisor on Youth and Sports, Aliyu Yusuf.
