We will challenge his banishment, detention in court – Sanusi’s lawyers

Lawyers of the recently deposed Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II’s lawyers on Tuesday vowed to challenge his banishment and detention by the Kano State Government in court.

Sanusi’s legal team led by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abubakar Balarabe-Mahmoud,  at a press conference in Kano, said government should release Sanusi or face a legal action. They also raised the alarm over the deposed Emir’s personal safety and security.

The lawyers stated that they had not been able to speak to Sanusi since Monday, adding that the location of the place where the deposed Emir was being detained was  meant to cause him “maximum trauma and distress.”

Sanusi, who became the  14th Emir of Kano on June  8, 2014, was dethroned on Monday by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and banished to Nasarawa State.

The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji, who announced Sanusi’s deposition and the appointment of Alhaji Aminu Bayero as his successor, said the immediate past Emir  was removed because of “total disrespect to lawful instructions from the office of the state governor.”

At 5:36 pm on Monday, the Emir was forced out of the palace from where he was taken to Loko in the Nasarawa Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

Criticising the treatment being meted out to Sanusi, the lawyers, at the press conference,  said, “We have not spoken to the Emir since yesterday (Monday), but we understand that they are at their destination somewhere in a remote part of Nassarawa State after driving for nearly seven hours in the night and arriving at about 2am today.

The lawyers said the archaic practice of the banishment of deposed Emirs, a colonial practice,  had no basis in the country’s constitution.

They said, “The illegality of such a practice was pronounced by the Nigerian Court of Appeal in Attorney General Kebbi State v. the former emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Al-Mustapha Jakolo, and ors 2013 LPELR 22349/CA where the court pronounced it as illegal and unconstitutional gross violation of the rights of the Emir.

“This is what the court said in that case:  ‘The banishment and deportation from Kebbi State by the Governor of Kebbi State of the first respondent Jokolo to Lafia in Nasarawa State and later to Obi also in Nasarawa State is most unconstitutional and illegal.

“We call on the authorities, in particular the Inspector-General, the Director General of Department of State Services and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to ensure the immediate release of Sanusi II so that he can be reunited with his family.