Emirate tussle: Court orders Bayero’s eviction, Kano says deposed emir a threat

A Kano State High Court presided over by Justice Amina Adamu Aliyu has ordered the police to evict the deposed Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, from the palace he is occupying along the State Road in the Nasarawa area of the state.

The court, which gave the order on Monday, also issued an interim injunction restraining  Bayero and four other dethroned emirs from parading themselves as emirs, pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice filed by applicants.

The judge gave the ruling as the state government appealed to  President Bola Tinubu to move the deposed 15th Emir of Kano from the state.

The state Deputy Governor, Aminu Abdussalam, during a press conference on Monday, said Bayero’s presence in Kano posed a threat to the peace and stability cherished by its people.

The state House of Assembly had on Thursday repealed the Kano Emirates Council Law which divided Kano into five emirates.

Amid the crisis caused by the new emirates, the 14th emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was dethroned by Abdullahi Ganduje’s administration.

Upon the repeal of the law on Thursday, the state Governor, Abba Yusuf, signed the new law and sacked the five Emirs.

The sacked 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 complied with the directive, the deposed Emir of Kano, who was not in the city, returned and headed for the palace at the Nasarawa area.

On Friday, it was reported that Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court granted an order filed by the Sarkin Dawaki Babba of the Kano Emirate, Aminu Agundi, stopping the Kano State Government from enforcing the Kano State Emirate Council Repeal Law which dethroned the five emirs in the state.

But the state government ignored the order and went ahead with Sanusi’s reinstatement even as the governor threatened to report the judge to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum for granting the order.

He claimed that the judge granted the order while he was in the United States.

Miffed by Bayero’s return to the mini-palace in Nassarawa, the governor ordered the arrest of the deposed monarch but the police authorities said they would enforce the court order.

Ruling on an exparte application by counsel to the applicants,  Ibrahim Isa Wangida, the state high court on Monday restrained the deposed emirs from parading themselves as emirs.

The applicants are the Attorney General of Kano State, the Speaker House of Assembly and the Kano State House of Assembly.

The respondents in the matter are 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 & 5th defendants either by themselves, servants, privies, and 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 24th May 2024.

“That an order of this honourable court is hereby granted restraining the 1st 2nd 3rd 4th & 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.