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Kano Emirate Dispute: Court Of Appeal Upholds Status Quo Pending Supreme Court Decision
The Court of Appeal has ordered all parties to maintain the status quo in the ongoing Kano Emirate dispute, effectively halting the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as Emir of Kano until the Supreme Court delivers its judgment.
The Emirate has been embroiled in a legal tussle following the state’s legislative actions affecting its traditional leadership. In 2024, the Kano State Government enacted the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law 2024, which led to significant changes in the emirate’s structure, including the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.
On June 20, 2024, the Federal High Court in Kano, presided over by Justice Abubakar Liman, nullified the actions taken by the Kano State Government under the 2024 law.
Subsequently, on January 10, 2025, the Court of Appeal overturned the Federal High Court’s decision, asserting that the lower court lacked jurisdiction over chieftaincy matters, which are typically under the purview of state high courts. This appellate decision reinstated the 2024 law and, by extension, Sanusi’s position as Emir.
Dissatisfied with the appellate court’s judgment, Alhaji Aminu Babba Dan Agundi, a prominent kingmaker, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. He also sought an injunction to prevent the enforcement of the January 10 judgment pending the Supreme Court’s decision. On March 14, 2025, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Okon Abang, granted this injunction.
The court ordered all parties to maintain the status quo as it existed before the Federal High Court’s June 2024 ruling, effectively halting Sanusi’s reinstatement until the Supreme Court adjudicates the matter.
Russia and Ukraine continued aerial attacks on each other, inflicting injuries and damages, officials said early on Sunday, as the fate of a proposed ceasefire to the three-year-old war remained uncertain.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he supported in principle Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.
Both sides have since traded heavy aerial strikes, and Russia moved closer on battlefield to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.
The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units destroyed a total of 31 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.
Of those, 16 were downed over the southwestern region of Voronezh, nine over the territory of the Belgorod region and the rest over the Rostov and Kursk regions, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
In a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border region of Belgorod, three people were injured, including a 7-year-old, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said earlier on the Telegram messaging app.
Two of the people were injured after a drone hit their house, sparking a fire in the Gubkinsky district of the region, while the other person was injured in a drone attack on the village of Dolgoye, Gladkov said.
Alexander Gusev, governor of Voronezh, said on Telegram that there was no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The acting governor of the southern Russian region of Rostov said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage reported there either.
In Ukraine, authorities reported several Russian drone strikes, including on the northern region of Chernihiv, where firefighters were battling a blaze at a high-rise building that was sparked by Russian drone attack, Ukraine’s state of emergency service said.
Ukrainian media reported a series of explosions in the region surrounding the capital Kyiv, after Ukraine’s air force issued warnings of a threat of drone attacks on Kyiv and a number of other central Ukrainian regions.
By 0300 GMT on Sunday, there was no official information about damage in the Kyiv region.
Federal Government on Saturday explained why it awarded the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project to Hitech Construction Company Ltd.
The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi, made the explanation during an inspection tour of the highway project in Lagos.
“Some people say that it didn’t go through a competitive bidding.
“I want to explain this: we have three types of procurement allowed by law,” he said.
Umahi listed the three types as restrictive procurement, selective/competitive bidding, and open bidding.
“When we started this project, we asked for companies that have up to five wirtgne concrete paver.
“You will agree with me that until we started this, the concrete paver was not common in Nigeria as it is today.
“We had to look for a company that had done this kind of project before, and that is Hitech.”
He noted that Hitech reconstructed the Oworonshoki Apapa Road.
“We saw that they got it right; so, we called them on Section 1.
“Then, we used restrictive bidding, which we sent to BPP (Bureau for Public Procurement) and we sent to the Federal Executive Council and they looked at it and corrected where they should and passed it accordingly.
“When other companies started bringing in some equipment, because they saw that Ministry of Works is insisting, especially where we have high water table, that we must use concrete, they started to bring in concrete equipment,” he said.
Umahi said that the Federal Government consequently opened Section 2 of the project to selective bidding and selected some companies and they bid.
He said that Hitech won the bidding.
The minister said that in Section 3A and 3B, the same thing happened.
“We have not gone outside the law, we have not gone outside the Procurement Act.”
He emphasised that President Bola Tinubu did not recommend any company for the highway project.
“ I want to say that there is no corruption in it. It is very transparent,” he added. (NAN)
The police command in Lagos State has detained two suspects ages 27 and 32 for alleged armed robbery.
The command’s spokesperson, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest to newsmen in Lagos on Saturday.
He said that the suspects were apprehended on Friday at 4:00 a.m. at Sangotedo, Lekki-Epe Expressway.
“The police on early morning patrol apprehended the two suspects.
“One automatic pistol and five live ammunition were recovered, ” the spokesperson said.
According to him, the suspects are currently undergoing interrogation for possible prosecution.