Deposed Emir Sanusi’s Exile Case Gets Nov 30 Date

BY EDMOND ODOK – Deposed Emir of Kano and former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mohammadu Sanusi II, has been given a November 30, 2021 judgment date on the suit challenging his banishment to Awe in Nasarawa State by the Kano State government.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is currently before the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to quash the resolution by the Kano State Executive Council on March 9, 2020, which pronounced his dethronement and subsequent exile from the State for alleged insubordination.

Confined to Nasarawa State following the Kano government’s action, The former Emir of Kano however regained his freedom on March 13, 2020, following an interim order by Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The Judge thereafter fixed November 30, 2021, after entertaining the final arguments from lawyers representing parties in the fundamental rights enforcement suit. Respondents in the suit are the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), the Attorney-General of Kano State and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

In addressing the Court, Sanusi’s lead counsel, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), said the case was not a chieftaincy matter because his client was not challenging his deposition, stressing that the complaint was about the shabby treatment meted to him after the deposition.

The Senior lawyer faulted the respondents’ challenge to the Abuja court’s jurisdiction to hear the case, arguing that no law supports the position that where rights violation occurs across several jurisdictions, one cannot approach a court in any of the jurisdictions.

According to tom him, given the manner the deposed Emir was treated, his fundamental rights were violated, and he was only rightfully seeking protection from the court through all the reliefs being sought in the suit.

However, in his submission, Counsel to the IGP, Victor Okoye, while faulting the competence of the suit, also queried the court’s jurisdiction to entertain it, noting that the instrument conveying the ex-Emir’s banishment was authored and endorsed by an official of the Kano State government in the state.

He said the appropriate venue for Sanusi to seek redress for the alleged violation of his rights was a court in Kano State and therefore prayed the court to either strike out the case or dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction.

Similarly, the counsel to the Director-General of DSS DG, Godwin Agbadua, who also challenged the court’s jurisdiction, argued the suit should be struck out because the alleged rights violation occurred in Kano, and not in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Maintaining that there is a Federal High Court in Kano where Sanusi could have sought redress, Agbadua said; “Where there is infringement in sequence, the court with jurisdiction is that where the alleged infringement commenced, which by the applicant’s affidavit, is Kano and there is a Federal High Court in Kano.”

Also towing the same line of argument, Counsel to the Kano State Attorney-General, Musa Mohammed, who is the Director of Civil Litigation, Kano State Ministry of Justice, knocked the suit’s competence as well as the Abuja Court’s jurisdiction to entertain the matter and therefore urged prayed the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit. – Additional reports from the Nation