Kano Royal Crisis: Lawyers Involved In Conflicting Judicial Pronouncements Should Be Punished – Group

By Suleiman Anyalewechi.

An Advocacy Group, Save the Poor and Needy Charity Initiative SPANCI, on Thursday, May 30, 2024, beckoned on the Chief Justice of Nigeria to act swiftly to save the Judiciary from self destructing.

Its call is coming against the backdrop of the conflicting and partisan pronouncements  emanating from  courts of equal jurisdiction on the festering struggle for the Emirship of the Kano Emirate .

Justices Mohammed Liman and S A Amobeda of the Federal High Courts Kano have seen their separate pro- Emir Ado Bayero rulings upturned  by a Kano State High Court presided over by Justice Amina Adamu Aliyu  in favour of the Kano State Government back Emir Muhammad Sanusi in the last few days.

The contradictory rulings have equally led to the Kano Emirate, for the first time in recent memory, play host to two Emirs, a development that has since raised the political temperature of the commercial hub of Northern Nigeria to  near boiling point .

Although, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, has since summoned the heads of the Federal and State high courts of Kano to Abuja over the development, SPANCI President, Ezekiel Bello, said the Nigerian Chief Justice must urgently halt the ugly trend.

In a statement issued and made available to the media ,the Advocacy body, insisted that the conflicting rulings represent a new low for the courts, as well as being inimical to the justice system, the legal profession, the rule of law and democracy.

“SPANCI frowns at this show of shame by our Judiciary .This is gross abuse of power and office that must be immediately investigated and punishable actions taken by my lord the Chief Justice of Nigeria CJN who is the head of the national judicial council NJC.

“This is a serious judicial perversion ,recklessness,and rascality which if not addressed has come to stay and will be repeated in future as precedent and antecedent to our justice system.

“The two courts have equal jurisdiction on the matter . They are courts of coordinate jurisdiction to each other ,.The state high court earlier granted an order favouring Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi .

“But in a turn of events ,Emir Ado Bayero who has been removed for a very long time also went to get what l will call a tackling, conflicting ,and jeopardizing order from the Federal high court to attack the initial order by the kano State high court in favour of Emir Sanusi which has caused tension in Kano State, as well as portraying our Judiciary as being corrupt.

“It is wrong to get the order of a Court to attack the order of the same Court of competent jurisdiction. The lawyers involved should be punished to avoid a repeat of this in the future.

“I think this has a political undertone. We hereby humbly appeal to our lord, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, to act in his capacity as the Head of the Judiciary Arm of Government in the country, to save the face and name of our courts, and prevent them from setting this bad record for our justice system and its stakeholders.”Comrade Bello pleaded.