THE Court of Appeal in Abuja has halted the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi as the Emir of Kano.
The court held that since an appeal was already before the Supreme Court, it was essential to maintain the status quo.
The appellate court led by Okon Abang, in a ruling on Friday, March 14, unanimously stopped the implementation of the January 10 judgment, which blocked the nullification of Sanusi’s appointment by a Kano St High Court, and held that it was done without jurisdiction.
However, ruling on the fresh applications with numbers CA/KN/27M/2025 and CA/KN/28M/2025, the appellate court maintained that the applications seeking to halt the enforcement of the earlier judgment pending the appeal before the Supreme Court were competent and meritorious.
Abang also stated that the issue before the court needed to be preserved because the applicant (Bayero) had served as emir for five years before his removal, adding that he earned the right to protection.
On January 10, Kolawole, in lifting the order against Sanusi’s appointment, maintained that the matter, being a chieftaincy dispute, ought to have been determined by the High Court of Kano State rather than the Federal High Court, which he described as “a grave error.”
The Federal High Court had, on Thursday, June 20, 2024, reinstated deposed Ado Bayero as the emir, consequently annulling the state government’s reinstatement of Sanusi as the emir.
The court abrogated the Kano State Emirate Law 2024, which dissolved the five Emirates in the state.
It also dismissed the state government’s Emirates Council Law, which the state had used to sack Sanusi and install Bayero as emir.
The judge, Abdullahi Muhammad Liman, in his ruling, ordered all parties involved in the case to maintain the status quo.
A kingmaker in the defunct Kano Emirate, Aminu Babba Danagundi, also known as the Sarkin Dawaki Babba, through his attorney, Chikaosolu Ojukwu, a senior advocate, had sued the Governor Abba Yusuf-led government to contest the new law’s validity and requested that the court void it.
But in a judgment read by Kolawole on Friday, January 10, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, Kano, held that the order nullifying the steps taken by the Kano State Government pursuant to the 2024 Emirates Council Law was made by Liman without jurisdiction.
The appellate court ruled that the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by an aggrieved kingmaker – Aminu Babba Dan Agundi – on which basis Liman issued the June 20 order was not only invalid but the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Abang, delivering the judgment in the new case on Friday, March 14, stated that the court must maintain the status quo before the Federal High Court’s decision on June 13, 2024.
The ruling restrained the Kano State Government and other respondents from implementing the January 10 judgment and ordered that the situation remained as it was until the Supreme Court’s final decision.
The judgement stops the reinstatement of Sanusi as the 16th Emir of Kano until the Supreme Court rules on the appeal.
A reporter with the ICIR
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