The Attorney General of Kano State, Ibrahim Muktar, has cleared the air on the speculation that the dethroned Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II iswas bannished to Nasarawa State. Muktar reiterated on Wednesday that the state government did not banish the deposed Emir of Kano.
The state legal officer declared that the state government was clear in its press statement on Monday that Sanusi was deposed, but never made any reference to any banishment.
The Kano AG said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday.
The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, had on Monday deposed Sanusi because of what the state government called “total disrespect to lawful instructions from the office of the state government.”
On Monday, the dethroned monarch was banished to Loko, a remote location in Nasarawa State. On Tuesday, he was relocated to Awe.
Sanusi’s legal team, led by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abubakar Balarabe-Mahmoud, on Tuesday, asked the government to release Sanusi or face a legal action.
The lawyers, who described Sanusi’s banishment and detention as illegal, alleged that the deposed Emir was being subjected to maximum stress and trauma.
But on Wednesday, the Kano State government said the state did not banish Sanusi. “If you listen to the Secretary to the State Government when he was addressing the press on the issue of the removal of the emir from office, there was nowhere he stated that the emir was banished from Kano State,” the Attorney general said.
“So, the decision of the government when the emir was removed on Monday was that he was removed from office and a new one appointed. The issue of banishment was not part of the decision of the Kano State Government.
“We have been hearing from the media that he has been banished but what I know is that he was taken out of Kano State, but banishment was not part of our decision. There is no such decision to the best of my knowledge.
