THE Federal High Court in Kano has set aside the Kano State Emirate Law 2024, which dissolved the five emirates in Kano State, thereby reinstating the deposed Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero.
It dismissed all steps taken by the Kano State Government to repeal the Kano Emirates Council Law relied upon by Governor Abba Yusuf to dethrone the 15th Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero and four others.
Justice Abdullahi Muhammad Liman, while ruling on Thursday, set aside the action of the state government, ordering parties to maintain status quo.
By that judgment, the court also nullified the reinstatement of the former emir, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi 11.
Recall that the Kano House of Assembly had repealled the law enthroning the 15th Emir (Bayero) and establishment of additional four emirate councils- Bichi, Rano Karaye and Gaya, by the immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.
Yusuf had swiftly implemented the enacted law by dethroning Bayero as Emir of Kano and reinstating the dethroned 14th Emir, Sanusi 11.
A kingmaker in the former Kano emirate, Aminu Babba Danagundi, who is the Sarkin Dawaki Babba, had dragged the state government to court, challenging the propriety of the new law and asking the court, through his counsel, Chikaosolu Ojukwu (SAN), to declare it null and void.
Justice Liman, ruling in suit number FHC/KN/CS/182/2024, had immediately ordered the state government and the other parties involved to stop the implementation of the new emirate law, pending the hearing of the substantive case.
But the state government ignored the order and went ahead to reappoint Sanusi 11 as the 16th Emir of Kano, after scrapping the four other emirates.
The Judge, who appeared at the court room at 3:08 p.m, apologised for coming late. In his ruling that lasted an hour, he also described Yusuf’s speech during the presentation of the reappointment letter to Sanusi as a road to anarchy, saying if a court order cannot be respected, despite evidence of service, then the government was heading to the explosive side.
He ordered the restoration of the Kano Emirate Council Law 2019 that split Kano into five emirates of Kano, Bichi, Karaye, Rano and Gaya.
