Ganduje appoints four new emirs

Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano state, has appointed four new emirs in the state.

The appointment comes 48 hours after he assented to a bill to split Kano emirate into five.

The new emirs are Aminu Ado Bayero (Bichi), Ibrahim Abdulkadir (Gaya), Tafida Abubakar (Rano), and Ibrahim Abubakar (Karaye).

Ado Bayero is one of the sons of the predecessor of Muhammadu Sanusi, the incumbent emir of Kano.

Meanwhile, Kabiru Alhassan, speaker of the Kano house of assembly, is now a kingmaker in Rano emirate.

Rurum, who holds the traditional title of Turakin Rano, made the list of four kingmakers in the emirate.

Muhammad Garba, commissioner for information, said the new emirs would receive their letters of appointment and staff of office at a ceremony at Sani Abacha Stadium on Saturday.

Sources told TheCable that last night, Ganduje informed the appointed emirs of their elevation and directed them to begin preparations for their new assignment.

A Kano high court had restrained Ganduje from implementing the law breaking up the emirate.

Ganduje’s action is believed to be political. The move was said to be targetted at Sanusi who reportedly worked against his reelection.

Two days before Ganduje gave assent to the bill on the creation of new emirates, a government official had told TheCable that the governor was determined to either remove Sanusi or whittle down his influence.

But speaking with state house correspondents earlier on Friday, Ganduje denied that his action had political undertone.

“We are taking Kano to the next level and we need the active participation of the traditional system, especially in the areas of education, security, agriculture,” he said.

“By decentralising the emirate, we followed history. Years back, the situation was not that.”

He insisted that he had no personal score to settle with Sanusi, whom he said ought to be reporting to a local government chairman.

“So, it is not vendetta, I am not against him (Sanusi). In fact, he is supposed to be reporting to the local government chairman according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.

“It is the local government chairman that is supposed to discuss issues with him, not the governor.”

The state anti-graft agency is currently probing the emirate under Sanusi over alleged misappropriation of N6 billion. This could lead to the deposition of the monarch.