The Court of Appeal in Abuja has temporarily halted the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi as the Emir of Kano.
The court ruled on Friday, March 14, that the status quo must be maintained, as an appeal related to the case is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
The ruling, led by Justice Okon Abang, unanimously stopped the implementation of the January 10 judgment, which had blocked the nullification of Sanusi’s appointment by a Kano State High Court. The court held that the judgment was made without proper jurisdiction.
The appeal court, in its ruling on the fresh applications numbered CA/KN/27M/2025 and CA/KN/28M/2025, maintained that the applications seeking to halt the enforcement of the earlier judgment, pending the Supreme Court’s decision, were both competent and meritorious.
Justice Abang further emphasized the importance of preserving the issue, noting that the applicant, Ado Bayero, had served as emir for five years before his removal and had earned the right to protection.
On January 10, in a separate ruling, Kolawole lifted the order against Sanusi’s appointment, asserting that the matter was a chieftaincy dispute that should have been resolved by the Kano State High Court rather than the Federal High Court, which was a “grave error.”
Previously, on June 20, 2024, the Federal High Court reinstated Ado Bayero as the emir, thereby annulling the state government’s reinstatement of Sanusi. The court also abrogated the Kano State Emirate Law 2024, which dissolved the five emirates in the state, and dismissed the state government’s Emirates Council Law that facilitated Sanusi’s removal.
In his ruling, Judge Abdullahi Muhammad Liman had ordered all parties to maintain the status quo.
Furthermore, a kingmaker in the defunct Kano Emirate, Aminu Babba Danagundi, through his lawyer Chikaosolu Ojukwu, had sued the Governor Abba Yusuf-led government, challenging the validity of the new law and requesting that the court nullify it.
On Friday, January 10, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Kano ruled that the order nullifying the Kano State government’s steps under the 2024 Emirates Council Law was made by Liman without jurisdiction.
