A Kano State High Court presided over by Justice Amina Adamu Aliyu has ordered the police to evict Kano’s deposed Emir, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, from the palace he is occupying on State Road in the Nasarawa area of the state.
The court, which issued the order on Monday, also granted an interim injunction preventing Bayero and four other dethroned emirs from acting as emirs until a move on notice submitted by applicants is heard and determined.
The judge issued the verdict after the state government petitioned President Bola Tinubu to remove the deposed Bayero, 15th Emir of Kano from the state.
Aminu Abdussalam, the state deputy governor, said during a press conference on Monday that Bayero’s presence in Kano posed a threat to the peace and stability cherished by its people.
On Thursday, the state House of Assembly revoked the Kano Emirates Council Law, which separated Kano into five emirates.
During the turmoil generated by the new emirates, the 14th emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was deposed by Abdullahi Ganduje’s administration, and was subsequently replaced by Bayero.
Following the repeal of the ordinance on Thursday, Abba Yusuf, the state governor, signed the new law and fired the five emirs.
The fired emirs include Aminu Ado Bayero (Kano), Alhaji Nasir Ado Bayero (Bichi), Alhaji Kabiru Muhammad Inuwa (Rano), Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar II (Karaye), and Alhaji Aliyu Ibrahim Abdulkadir (Gaya). While the other four emirs followed the command, the deposed Emir of Kano, who was not in the city, returned and proceeded to the palace in the Nasarawa district.
On Friday, Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court granted an order filed by the Kano Emirate’s Sarkin Dawaki Babba, Aminu Agundi, to prevent the Kano State Government from enforcing the Kano State Emirate Council Repeal Law, which dethroned the state’s five emirs.
However, the state government disobeyed the decision and proceeded with Sanusi’s restoration, despite the governor’s warning to refer the judge to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum for issuing the order.
He claimed the judge issued the order while he was in the United States.
The governor, irritated by Bayero’s return to the mini-palace in Nassarawa, ordered the ousted monarch’s arrest, but police officials indicated they would follow the court order.
The state high court ruled on an ex parte appeal by the petitioners’ counsel, Ibrahim Isa Wangida, on Monday, prohibiting the deposed emirs from claiming to be emirs.
The applicants are Kano State’s Attorney General, Speaker of Assembly, and Kano State House of Assembly.
The respondents in the case include the deposed emirs of Karaye, Gaya, Bichi, Rano, and Kano, the Inspector General of Police, the Director of the Department of State Services, the Army, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The court document dated May 27, 2024, reads, “That order of interim injunction is hereby granted restraining the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th defendants either by themselves, servants, privies, or any other persons or officers serving under them or acting in connection with any other person from parading themselves as Emirs of Kano, Bichi, Gaya, Rano, and Karaye pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed by the applicants.
“That an order is hereby granted to the extent that the Commissioner of Police Kano State should immediately take the palace of the Emir of Kano situated being and lying at State Road Kano and evict the 1 Defendant/Respondent from the said palace pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice dated May 24, 2024.
“That an order of this honourable court is hereby granted restraining the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th defendants from parading themselves as Emirs of Kano, Bichi, Gaya, Rano, and Karaye in the interest of peace in Kano pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.
“That an order is hereby made that 1–5 defendants be through the office of the Commissioner of Police, Kano State, who is to ensure immediate implementation of the order of the honourable court in the interest of justice.”
