In a split decision of two Justices to one, the Court of Appeal in Abuja has barred the Federal High Court in Kano from adjudicating over the Kano Emirate legal battle.
The appellate court held that the court has no jurisdiction to dabble into the Kano State Chieftaincy Matters on the ground that such a case can only be determined by the Kano High Court.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole who delivered the lead judgment, held that the federal high court has no business adjudicating over the chieftaincy matters but ordered that the matter be returned to the Kano state high court, being the proper court for such matters.
The Presiding Justice, Mustapha Mohammed, and another Justice agreed with Justice Kolawole that the federal high court has no jurisdiction to go into the Kano emirate legal battle.
They however disagreed with him that the case be returned to the Kano Chief Judge for reassignment to a Judge of the State High Court.
Instead, the two Justices held that the proper order to be made was for striking out of the case and not remittance.
Consequently, the two justices struck out the proceedings of the Federal High court on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to have dabbled into the matter in the first instance.
Governor Abba Yusuf reinstated a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II as the Emir of Kano in May 2024.
Sanusi’s reinstatement came after the Kano State House of Assembly passed a new law scrapping the four emirates created in addition to the Emir of Kano. The emirates were created by a 2019 law under the leadership of a former governor of the state Abdullahi Ganduje.
However, the new law abolished the emirates created by the Ganduje government and restored Sanusi Lamido as the Emir of Kano.
The 2019 law was first amended in 2019 following a rift between Ganduje and Sanusi
It divided the Kano Emirate into five: Rano, Karaye, Gaya, and Bichi emirates. It also made room for the appointment of first-class emirs for the new emirates which led to Sanusi’s deposition.
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