Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf (left), and HRH, Muhammadu Sanusi II
The Government of Kano State has dismissed claims that Friday’s judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division nullified the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.
Addressing journalists in Kano, Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Barrister Haruna Isa Dederi emphasised that the appellate court’s judgment on January 10, 2025, reaffirmed the state government’s authority to reinstate Sanusi.
He clarified that only the Supreme Court has the power to overturn that decision.
Leadership reports that the remarks followed the Court of Appeal’s ruling on Friday on a stay of execution application filed by Aminu Baba DanAgundi, a kingmaker loyal to the 15th Emir, Aminu Ado Bayero.
The court ruled that the status quo should be maintained until the Supreme Court delivers its final verdict. Dederi reiterated that the appellate court had not overturned its own judgment but merely placed a hold on its execution pending the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He further explained that the January 10 judgment had set aside an earlier Federal High Court decision that nullified Sanusi’s reinstatement, affirming that the lower court lacked jurisdiction over the emirate matter.
“It doesn’t mean that the judgment delivered on January 10, 2025, has been quashed. That judgment is still standing and subsisting. The Court of Appeal cannot reverse its own decision; only the Supreme Court has the power to set it aside,” Dederi stated.
However, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, law teacher and ex-chair of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in a post on X raises some questions about outside interference with the verdict.
Hinting that the panel, consisting of Justices Okon Efret Abang, Eberechi Suzanne Nyesom-Wike, and Oyejoju Oyebiola Oyewumi might have given some colouration to the judgment, Odinkalu added that the presiding justice of the trio, and the controversial Justice Okon Abang, only got to the Court in the 4th quarter of 2023.
