Kano emirship tussle: Court accepts to hear suit challenging Bayero’s dethronement

A federal high court in Kano has ruled that it has the jurisdiction to hear a suit regarding the Kano Emirates tussle between Lamido Sanusi and Aminu Bayero.

The suit filed by Aminu Babba Dan Agundi and Sarkin Dawaki Babba of the Kano emirate seeks to restrain the respondents from enforcing, implementing, and operationalising the repealed law that reinstated Sanusi as Emir of Kano.

The respondents in the suit are the Kano state government, the Kano state house of assembly, the speaker of the state assembly, and the attorney-general of Kano.

Others are the Kano state commissioner of police, the inspector-general of police (IGP), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the Department of State Services (DSS).

At the previous court session, M.S. Waziri, counsel to the applicants, submitted that the court could hear the matter as it borders on fundamental human rights.

“The applicant, as a member of the Kano Emirate kingmakers, ought to have been involved in the reinstatement of the new Emir,” Waziri told the court.

“My lord, a breach of fundamental rights has no timeline. I urge the court to proceed with the case.”

Responding, Mahmoud Magaji, counsel for the first and fourth respondents, urged the court to decline the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

Also, Ibrahim Wangida, counsel for the second and third respondents, aligned himself with the submission of Magaji.

“The 2019 Kano emirate council law, which gave power to the applicant at the time of filing his action, was abolished, so he ceased to be a kingmaker as of the time he filed the action because the governor had already accented to the law,” Wangida said.

Delivering the ruling on Thursday, Liman Mohammed, the presiding judge, held that the applicant is at liberty to contest the legality of his dethronement.

Sanusi was reinstated as Emir by Abba Yusuf, governor of Kano, at a colourful ceremony in the government house on May 24.

The Kano house of assembly repealed the law that Abdullahi Ganduje, the former governor of the state, used to depose and exile Sanusi in 2020.

The repeal paved the way for the reinstatement of Sanusi and the dethronement of Bayero.