GOMBE STATE LEGAL SYSTEM AND PROFILE

Gombe State, with capital at Gombe State, was created on 1 October 1996 under the military dictatorship of General Sanni Abacha out of the former Bauchi State.

Lying between latitude 9^o30^lN and longitudes 8^o45^l and 11^o45^lE of the Greenwich Meridian, the State’s 18,768km² land mass is bounded by Borno State to the east, Adamawa and Taraba States to the south, Yobe State to the north and Bauchi State to the west.

The population of Gombe State according to National Population Commission estimate is 2,365,040. The people of the State are mainly farmers. Crops produced in the State include food crops such as yam, cassava, maize, tomato, and groundnut. The major cash crop produced cotton. Mineral resources produced in the State include Uranium, gypsum, and limestone.

Currently, the State owes its legal existence to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a State, it is constitutionally mandated to establish:

1.    an Executive arm of government headed by an elected Governor;

2. a legislative arm of government which members shall be drawn from constituencies defined in the Constitution. Its activities are presided over by a Speaker elected by the members of the State House of Assembly which oversees the exercise of the State’s legislative energies;

3. a judicial arm made up of judges, magistrates and other officers that help in the administration of justice and related activities within the State. The judicial arm is headed by the State’s Chief Justice. Nonetheless, judicial pronouncement of the State’s tribunals are subject to the appellate review of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in that order;

4. the Local Government level of governance. Presently, the Nigerian Constitution prescribes 11 local Local Government Areas for the State; and

5. and mobilize the powers of the State, the institutions and resources of  its arms and levels of government in order to secure a socio-economic environment for persons resident in the State and its other stakeholders to pursue legitimate goals in dignity under the State’s justice administration umbrella.

The Gombe State legal system comprises;

1. The compendium of Constitutional provisions applicable to the State as one of the 36 States that constitute the Nigerian Federation;

7. Laws made by the Federal Legislature applicable throughout the entire federation or specifically to Gombe State;
8. Laws made (or deemed to have been made), by the State’s legislature;
9. Laws made by Local Government Councils in the State;
10. Customary laws or other customs of the market place applicable under the operation of Law;
11. Judicial precedents of the courts of the State  and of appellate courts with jurisdictions over its tribunals  like the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Nigeria;
12. Judicial precedents of federation tribunals like the Federal High Court, the National Industrial Court, Code of Conduct Tribunal, Investments and Securities Tribunal and so on to the extent to which their mandates allow.
13. Law enforcement institutions, law enforcement officers, judges, legal practitioners, judiciary workers,  other professionals and persons recognized at various levels as part of the justice administration complex of the State.

Sources of Law for the Gombe State Legal System include:

1. The Constitution of Nigeria (including its amendments and other laws it refers to expressly as having the same character as provisions contained within the formal Constitutional document;
2. Laws of the Federation of Nigeria;
3. Legislations of the National Assembly applicable to Gombe State;
4. Legislations of the State House of Assembly;
5. Recognized customs of the people of Gombe State;
6. Judicial precedents of courts with judicial authority over Gombe State;
7. Local Government edicts.

GOMBE STATE BY LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS

LEGAL SYSTEMS OF THE FEDERATING UNITS OF NIGERIA – 37 STATES/FCT