By Ayo Kehinde
- Gov Abba Yusuf
The Court of Appeal, Abuja has ordered a fresh hearing into the legal dispute over the Kano Emirate tussle.
Governor, Abba Yusuf had last year reinstated Lamido Sanusi as the 16th Emir Kano after he dissolved four emirate councils of Gaya, Karaye, Rano, and Bichi created by the previous administration Abdullahi Ganduje, merging them into a single Kano emirate, as it had originally existed.
The governor also sacked the emirs of the four emirates and Aminu Ado-Bayero, the 15th Emir of Kano, who had ascended the throne following the dethronement of Lamido Sanusi in March 2020.
Following the controversy over the emirate crisis, a Kano State High Court on July 15, 2024, restrained Ado-Bayero and four other dethroned emirs of Bichi, Rano, Gaya, and Karaye—from parading themselves as traditional rulers.
Ruling on an appeal filed against the ruling on Friday, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Mohammed Mustapha, set aside the order of the lower court restraining Aminu Ado-Bayero and the other four dethroned emirs from parading themselves as traditional rulers.
Declaring the restraining order inconsistent with the principles of fair hearing, the appellate court directed the Chief Judge of the Kano State High Court to reassign the case to a different judge for fresh adjudication.
The court held that both the legal process and the decision of the Kano High Court were fundamentally tainted by breaches of fair hearing.
According to the ruling, the lower court was unfair to the appellant (Bayero) by conducting proceedings without serving him a hearing notice to enable him to present his case.
Specifically, the Appellate Court held that Bayero ought to have been served with a hearing notice to allow him to present his grievances before judgment was delivered against him in what it described as a shoddy arrangement.
