The move by Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State to secure over N3.7 billion loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has met with stiff resistance from some indigenes of the state who have taken the matter to court.

Concerned Adamawa State indigenes in a suit filed on their behalf at the state High Court by their lawyer, Mr. Dan Kozah, are asking for an order restraining Governor Nyako from sourcing for external loans or granting approval for the sourcing of external loans either from the IDB or any other financial institution during the pendency of the suit.

The litigants are Engineer Albert Stephen, Dr. Penni Boga and Dr. Francis Zira while the defendants in the suit are the Adamawa State Government, Governor Nyako, Adamawa State House of Assembly and the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice.

In the statement of claim, the plaintiffs accused Governor Nyako of putting a machinery in place to secure a loan to the tune of $24,113,417.00 (over N3.7 billion) on behalf of the state from IDB.

They further said in the suit that considering the statutory allocation, internally generated revenue and the current debt burden, the state is not in a position to take a loan from IDB or any bank.

They also said that due to the Debt Management Office report and the state’s indebtedness, it is not in the interest of the state to seek any loan, domestic or international.

The plaintiffs therefore asked the court to declare that the act of seeking approval to source for an external loan to the tune of $24,113,417.00 from the IDB by the Adamawa State Government is unreasonable, unwarranted and unconstitutional, adding that sourcing for a loan from an Islamic Bank, to which they do not subscribe, would infringe on their constitutional right and be a breach of the provisions of the constitution that recognises Nigeria as a secular state.

The plaintiffs further averred that the Islamic Development Bank is operated and managed on purely or fully Islamic sharia, sharia economic principles and propagates Islamic ideals and beliefs, which the 1999 constitution as amended prohibits.

According to the lawyer of the plaintiffs, “Adamawa State is not healthy to borrow. Moreover the governor is in the twilight of his administration.”

He further asserted that the case is predicated on the huge current debt burden of Adamawa State. His words: “If you consider the IGR and the debt burden you will agree with me that it is unreasonable, unfair for the governor to take this loan. He doesn’t have the capacity to pay.”

No date has been fixed yet for the hearing of the case.

•Photo shows Governor Nyako.

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