UPDATED : Court Orders Release Of Deposed Emir Sanusi

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday orders for the immediate release of deposed Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi II.

Justice  Anwuli Chikere gave the order today in an expert order moved before her by Counsel to the deposed emir, Lateef Fagbemi, (SAN).

Solacebase recalled that Malam Muhammad Sanusi II was deposed as Emir of Kano on Monday and banished to Loko where he was subsequently taken to Awe town, both in Nasarawa State.

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The order, made interim, is directed at the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Attorney General of Kano State and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) – who are all named as respondents in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed on March 12, 2020, by Sanusi.

Justice Chikere, in the ruling, said: “An interim order of this honourable court releasing the applicant from the detention and or confinement of the respondents and restoring the applicant’s rights to human dignity, personal liberty, freedom of association and movement in Nigeria, (apart from Kano State) pending the hearing and determination of the applicant’s originating summons.”

The judge also granted the applicant leave to serve a copy of the release order and the processes in relation to the substantive suit on the respondents through substituted means.

Justice Chikere allowed Sanusi to serve the defendants in the following manner:  On the IGP, through any officer in his office at the police headquarters at Louis Edet House, Garki, Abuja; on the DG DSS, through any officer at the DSS headquarters at Aso Drive in Abuja; on the AG of Kano State, through any officer at the sate’s Ministry of Justice, Audu Bako Secretariat, Kano, and on the AGF, through any officer at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja.

Sanusi is, by the substantive suit, challenging his purported banishment to a community in Nasarawa State, arguing that such restriction violated his constitutional guaranteed rights.

The presiding judge, Justice  Anwuli Chikere then adjourned the matter for hearing to March 26th, 2020.

NAN