By Abiola Olawale
The emirate dispute in Kano State has shown no signs of abating, as the state government has firmly maintained that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II remains the legitimate Emir of Kano.
This comes despite ongoing legal challenges threatening to upend Sanusi’s reinstatement.
The Kano State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Barrister Haruna Isa Dederi, who addressed the press on Saturday, maintained that the state government’s stance following a recent ruling by the Court of Appeal in Abuja was quite clear and precise.
According to Dederi, the appellate court’s decision did not invalidate Sanusi’s reinstatement as the 16th Emir of Kano.
Dederi declared that the matter is “functua officio”, adding that only the Supreme Court has the power to set aside the decision of the Appeal Court handed by Justice Mohammad Mustapha on January 10, 2025.
He asserted: “The Appeal Court today, after hearing their application for a stay of execution, ruled that the status quo should rather be maintained as it is now, until after the judgment of the Supreme Court. They have filed an appeal at the Supreme Court.
“It doesn’t mean that the judgment delivered on January 10, 2025, has been quashed. That judgment is still standing and still in place and subsisting. The Court of Appeal cannot reverse its own decision. It is not possible. It is only a supreme Court that has the power to set aside the judgment given by a lower court.”
It would be recalled that on January 10, 2025, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja division, led by Justice Mohammad Mustapha set aside the judgment of Justice A. Liman of the Federal High Court, Kano, which nullified the steps/actions taken by the Kano State Government pursuant to the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law 2024, including the appointment of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the 16th Emir of Kano.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, Alhaji Aminu Babba Dan’Agundi, the Sarkin Dawaki Babba of Kano, had since proceeded to the Supreme Court to upturn the lower court’s verdict.
Dan Agundi equally filed a motion for a stay of execution of Justice Mustapha’s Judgment pending the hearing and determination of the Supreme Court judgment on the matter.
The New Diplomat reports that the legal tussle stems from the reinstatement of Sanusi in May 2024 by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, who repealed the Kano State Emirate Council Law of 2019.
The repealed law which was enacted under the administration of former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, had split the Kano Emirate into five separate emirates which led to Sanusi’s dethronement in 2020.
However, the Kano State House of Assembly repealed the law, dissolving the additional emirates, which eventually paved the way for Sanusi’s return while deposing Aminu Ado Bayero, the 15th Emir.
