Kano govt reinterprets court ruling, says Sanusi remains emir, orders demolition of Bayero’s palace

The Kano State Government has directed the state’s Commissioner of Police to remove the 15th Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, from the Nasarawa mini palace.

The state government claimed that Thursday’s judgement by a Federal High Court was in its favour, affirming the state government’s decision to reinstate Emir Lamido Sanusi.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the court nullified the Kano Emirate Council (Amendment No. 2) Law, 2024, that scrapped four of the five emirate councils of the state last month and removed all the five emirs, including Aminu Ado-Bayero of Kano.

The judge, Abdullahi Liman, ruled that the appointment of Mr Sanusi as Kano emir was null and void because the government failed to obey the court order restraining it from taking further action on the new emirate council law.

The judge described Governor Yusuf’s speech during the presentation of the reappointment letter to Mr Sanusi as a road to anarchy, saying that if a court order cannot be respected despite evidence of service, then the government was heading to chaos.

He voided all the actions taken by the governor after the court order, including the signing of the new emirate law and subsequent appointment of Mr Sanusi as emir, and ordered all parties in the case to maintain the status quo.

But in a swift response, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Haruna Dederi, in a press conference, said the court ruling was in their favour and Mr Sanusi remains the emir.

He said the government has already concluded arrangements for the general reconstruction and renovation of the property, including the demolition and reconstruction of the dilapidated wall fence of the Nasarawa palace with immediate effect.

“Following this court’s ruling, Kano State Government has directed the State Commissioner of Police to remove the deposed emir of the 8 metropolitan local governments from the government property where he is trespassing as the government has already concluded arrangements for the general reconstruction and renovation of the property including the demolishing and reconstruction of the dilapidated wall fence with immediate effect.

“By the ruling of the court, it has unequivocally reaffirmed the validity of the law passed by Kano State House of Assembly and assented to by His Excellency the Executive Governor of Kano State on Thursday, 23rd May 2024 by 5:10 p.m.

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“This part of the judgement is very fundamental to the entire matter. Further implication of the ruling is that all actions done by the government before the emergence of the interim order of the honourable court, are equally validated.

“This means that the abolishing of the five emirates created in 2019 is validated, and the deposition of the five emirs is also sustained by the Federal High Court. By implication, this means that Muhammadu Sanusi II remains the emir of Kano.

“The judge also granted our application for the stay of proceedings until the Court of Appeal deals with the appeal before it on jurisdiction. Happily, the signing of the law and the reinstatement of His Highness, Emir Muhammad Sunusi II were done on 23rd May, 2024before the emergence of the Interim Order which was served on us on Monday 27th May, 2024,” the state government claimed.