The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Tuesday set aside actions previously delivered against the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.
Subsequently, the appellate court, upon acknowledging the transmission of the case record to the Supreme Court, directed all interested parties to exercise caution, pending the hearing of their appeals at the apex court.
In a unanimous ruling delivered by a three-member panel of justices, presided over by Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill, the court accepted the withdrawal of the application filed by the Kano State Government, following the transmission of the record of appeal to the Supreme Court.
During the resumed hearing on the enforcement of its earlier orders, counsel for the Kano State Government, Ibrahim Wangida, informed the court of a notice of appeal filed against the stay of execution issued on Friday, March 14, 2025.
Wangida stated that all necessary legal steps had been taken, including the transmission of the appeal record to the Supreme Court.
By implication, the transmission of the appeal record to the Supreme Court, in line with established legal precedents, operates as a stay of any further action on the Court of Appeal’s ruling of March 14, 2025.
Justice Abang, on Friday, March 14, 2025, ordered a stay of execution on an earlier judgment that validated the reinstatement of Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.
The judge also directed all parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum, as well as the sheriffs of both the Court of Appeal and the trial court, reverting to the situation before the trial court’s ruling delivered on June 13, 2024, in Suit No. FHC/KN/CS/182/2024.
Dissatisfied with Justice Abang’s ruling, counsel for the Kano State Government, Wangida, argued that the March 14 ruling constituted a grave error in interpreting constitutional provisions.
He maintained that an appeal had already been filed before the Supreme Court.
Responding to the notice of appeal, counsel for the appellant, Abdul Fagge (SAN), did not object, stating that the respondent acted within constitutional provisions.
The Kano State Government reinstated Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano, following the passage of the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law 2024.
The same law deposed Aminu Ado Bayero as the 15th Emir, along with four first-class emirs appointed by former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
Bayero, however, returned and took up residence at the Nasarawa mini palace in Kano under heavy security protection, while legally challenging his removal by the state government.
