Appeal Court overturns judgement sacking Sanusi as Kano emir

The Court docket of Attraction in Abuja on Friday put aside a Federal Excessive Court docket judgement nullifying the Kano State Authorities’s final yr’s steps and actions based mostly on the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Legislation 2024, together with the reinstatement of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi because the sixteenth Emir of Kano.

Delivering judgement, a three-member panel of the Court docket of Attraction declared that the 20 June 2024 verdict of the Federal Excessive Court docket in Kano was flawed because the courtroom lacked the jurisdiction to listen to the swimsuit.

Within the lead judgement delivered by Gabriel Kolawole, the Court docket of Attraction held that Federal Excessive Court docket decide Abubakar Liman acted with out jurisdiction, holding that solely the state Excessive Court docket can train jurisdiction over chieftaincy legal guidelines and associated issues.

The judgement is one in a sequence of selections the courtroom gave on a plethora of points that arose from the dispute over the Kano emirate stool.

In one other judgement by the identical the identical panel on Friday, the Court docket of Attraction dominated that discovered that the Excessive Court docket of Kano State denied Aminu Ado-Bayero, who’s laying declare to the Kano emirate throne, honest listening to in its listening to and dedication of a case filed by the state authorities to implement the brand new regulation.

Friday’s resolution overturning the Federal Excessive Court docket’s resolution on the brand new Kano emirate regulation successfully validates the reinstatement of the Kano State Authorities’s actions, together with the repeal of the 2019 Emirate Council Legislation and the following appointment of Mr Sanusi because the sixteenth Emir of Kano.

Background

Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State signed the Kano Emirate Council (Modification No. 2) Legislation, 2024 on 23 Might 2024, the identical day the state’s Home of Meeting handed its invoice and repealed the laws’s predecessor, the Kano State Emirate Council Legislation 2019.

Implementing the brand new regulation, the governor dissolved the 4 different emirate councils of Gaya, Karaye, Rano, and Bichi created by the previous regulation enacted by the earlier administration of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, reverting to a single Kano emirate because it had initially existed.

Consequently, Mr Yusuf dethroned the emirs of the 4 emirates and Aminu Ado-Bayero, as Emir of Kano who had ascended the throne following the dethronement of Mr Sanusi in March 2020 by the then-Governor Ganduje.

An aggrieved kingmaker, Aminu Dan-Agundi, challenged the regulation by way of a elementary rights enforcement swimsuit filed on the identical day, prompting Mr Liman to subject an interim order directing events to take care of the established order.

On 20 June2024, Mr Liman gave his ultimate judgement nullifying the steps taken beneath the brand new regulation, citing violations of his earlier directive.

The decide dominated that the appointment of Mr Sanusi as Kano emir was null and void as the federal government did not obey the courtroom order restraining it from taking additional actions on the brand new emirate council regulation.

Attraction courtroom’s findings

Within the lead judgment delivered by Gabriel Kolawole, the Court docket of Attraction declared Justice Liman’s order null and void, stating that the Federal Excessive Court docket lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the swimsuit.

Mr Kolawole defined that instances regarding conventional or chieftaincy issues, comparable to Mr Agundi’s declare, fall solely throughout the jurisdiction of state excessive courts.

“Having held that the Federal Excessive Court docket lacked the jurisdiction, it crucial follows that any order made by the trial courtroom together with the annulment of the steps and actions taken by the appellants and others on grounds of disobedience of the order of the decrease courtroom has grow to be null and void.

“A courtroom that lacks the jurisdiction to entertain a substantive matter additionally lacks the competence to make any order or grant any aid in respect of that matter.

“The annulment order made by the trial courtroom, which is the topic of this attraction, shouldn’t be sustainable as a result of the stated order was made by a courtroom that lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the substantive swimsuit.

“In view of the above, the order made by the Federal Excessive Court docket, Kano judicial division by Justice A. M. Liman (now Justice of Court docket of Attraction) in swimsuit quantity: FHC/KN/182/2024, which order was handed down on the twentieth of June 2024 nullifying all step’s and actions taken by the appellants and others in pursuant of the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Legislation 2024 is hereby nullified and accordingly, put aside,” Mr Kolawole held.

He additional clarified {that a} courtroom with out jurisdiction can not make binding orders or grant reliefs.

The panel additionally dominated that Mr Liman erred in assuming jurisdiction on 13 June to listen to Mr Dab-Agundi’s elementary rights enforcement swimsuit.

Mr Kolawole famous that the swimsuit didn’t pertain to any elementary rights protected beneath Chapter 4 of the Structure or the African Constitution on Human and Peoples’ Rights however as a substitute handled chieftaincy points.

READ ALSO: Attraction courtroom lifts injunction on Ado-Bayero’s declare to Kano throne, orders rehearing

Disagreement amongst justices

Two different members of the panel – Mohammed Mustapha and Abdul Dogo – agreed with the nullification of Mr Liman’s order, however disagreed with Mr Kolawole’s directive to remit Mr Dan-Agundi’s swimsuit to the Kano State Excessive Court docket for dedication.

The 2 justices argued that the case was improperly initiated, lacked advantage, and would waste judicial time if remitted. As an alternative, they ordered that the swimsuit be struck out totally.