By Mustapha Usman, Kano
The Kano State House of Assembly has confirmed the nomination of 32 out of 44 Interim Management Officers, IMOs, and suspended the screening of the lone female nominee, Binta Fatima Yahaya, and eight others.
The state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, had forwarded the list of the 44 nominees to the House on Monday, following the expiration of the tenure of the elected local government chairmen on May 29.
The name of the second female nominee, Hasiya Ismail Mukhtar, was struck out hours before submission of the list to the Assembly.
The female nominees face stiff opposition from the male-only Assembly and Islamic clerics in the state, citing religious reasons.
DAILY NIGERIAN reliably gathered that at the Wednesday sitting, the legislators suspended the screening of Mrs Yahaya, an architect and university lecturer, in order to “sort out some grey areas”.
Three of the nominees were however disqualified outright.
The three rejected nominees are Sani Iliyasu Garko, Auwalu Isa Ahmad and Rabiu Hassan from Garko, Fagge and Dawakin Kudu Local Government Areas respectively.
Also among the nine nominees whose screening was deferred are a former national president of Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, Ibrahim Ahmad Karaye and Mukhtari Ishaq, a former state ALGON chairman.
Speaking shortly after the sitting, the chairman of the House Committee on Local Government, Abba Garko, said his committee confirmed the nominations of the 32 IMOs after thorough scrutiny.
He added that the Garko Local Government nominee was disqualified due to lack of ‘geo-political balance’ in his nomination.
Mr Garko said the Fagge Local Government nominee was rejected because he was not a career civil servant, while the Dawakin Kudu nominee was disqualified based on the provision of Section 42 of the Local Government Act, 2006.
“The screening committee scrutinized their credentials, record of employment and conducted oral interviews.
“Some of the nominees were found eligible, experienced, as well as having the ability to contribute to the social and economic development of our local government areas and capable of handling the responsibility of office of IMO,” Mr Garko added.
He however did not give reason for suspending the confirmation of nine other nominees or disclose the date for their confirmation session.
