Nigeria Newspapers Online

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has said Kano State must have only one Emir as passed by the Court of Appeal and the 16th Emir of Kano has come to stay despite stiff opposition.

Falana said this at the 21st Memorial Lecture of Chief Gani Fawehimi in Lagos.

He said, “But as for us as lawyers, when we are gathered there, we must tell ourselves some basic truths. Your majesty, we want to congratulate you for your victory in the court of appeal.

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“Your opponents say they are going to the Supreme Court as far as the law is concerned and it’s so certain and this is where the NBA must come in. Where the law has been settled. that the traditional institution is not a fundamental right matter. So, you can’t say as a traditional ruler, you are going to enforce your fundamental rights in court.

“Two, the court again has made the point that the federal high court has no jurisdiction on chieftaincy matters. So if some of our colleagues are deceiving their clients and they are causing problems in the country, the NBA owes it a duty to begin to intervene and call our colleagues to order.

“Your majesty, wherever they are going, whether Supreme Court or whatever, you have come to stay. And we must only have one Emir in Kano. We can’t have two Emirs in Kano, two speakers in Rivers. This confusion must stop.”

Daily Trust reports that a three-member panel of justices on Friday held that the nullification of Sanusi II’s appointment was done without the required jurisdiction and ordered the transfer of the suit to the Kano State High Court.

Justice Kolawole held that the matter, being a chieftaincy dispute, ought to have been determined by the high court of Kano State rather than the Federal High Court.

But reacting to the development, Aminu Babba Danagundi, the principal plaintiff in the Kano emirates tussle said the battle ground had just been drawn, adding that he was ready to follow up  the case in 20 years to come.

Danagudi, who is a loyalist of Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, the 16th Emir of Kano, also disclosed that he had asked his lawyers to file an appeal at the Supreme Court.