A Federal High Court in Abuja held on Tuesday that the Kano State Government has no power under any law to ban ex-Kano Emir Lamido Sanusi from further visiting the city or to confine him to a particular part of the country without his consent.
Justice Anwuli Chikere, in a judgment on Tuesday, held that, having not committed any offence known to law, Sanusi should be able to enjoy the constitutionally guaranteed right for any Nigerian to reside in any part of the country, including Kano.
The judgment was on a fundamental rights enforcement suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/357/2020, filed by Sanusi shortly after he was dethroned by the Kano State Government on March 9, 2020 on claims of disloyalty and in-surbordination.
Justice Chikere, who upheld the argument by Sanusi’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), declared as illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional, the purported house arrest and restrictions placed on the former Emir by the Kano government, the Police and the State State Service (SSS).
She voided Sanusi’s purported banishment of Sanusi to Awe in Nasarawa State on the grounds that it constituted a serious infringement of his fundamental human rights.
Justice Chikere said: “Fundamental rights law is weighty, inalienable and cannot be wished away as done by the respondents in the instant case.
“There is no provision in the Nigeria’s supreme law (Constitution) that, where a person is dethroned, he should be banished to another place without his consent.
“Every Nigerian citizen must be treated with dignity, except where such a citizen commits a capital offence.”
The Kano State Government had, shortly after dethroning Sanusi, forcefully moved him and his family members, with the help of men of the police and State Security Service (SSS), out of Kano, first to Abuja, then to Loko (Nasarawa State) and later to Awe (also in Nasarawa State).
He was confined to Awe until March 13, 2020 when Justice Chikere issued interlocutory injunction restraining the respondents in the suit from further restricting Sanusi’s movement.
Respondents in the suit included the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Director General of the SSS, the Attorney General of Kano State and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
Sanusi, who said he was not challenging his dethronement, had argued in the suit that his forceful removal from the palace, movement to Abuja and later to Awe, where he was restrained, violated his fundamental human rights guaranteed under sections 34, 35, 40, 41 and 46 of the Constitution.
Justice Chikere, in her judgment on Tuesday held that the manner Sanusi was forcefully removed from the palace after his dethronement and taken, first to Abuja and later to Awe in Nasarawa State against his will, was a gross violation of his rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement.
She further held that the right to freedom of liberty and personal dignity granted under Section 34 of the Constitution cannot be violated as done by Kano government, the Police and SSS, except with express order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
The judge declared as unlawful Sanusi’s purported banishment and proceeded to issue an order of perpetual injunction barring the first to third respondents from further arresting, detaining, harassing and containing Sanusi’s movement.
Justice Chikere declared as a nullity the Emirate Chieftaincy Law 2019 under which the Kano State Government claimed to have acted, on the grounds that it was in conflict with express provisions of the Constitution.
The judge, who awarded N10milion damages against the Kano State Government, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the SSS, also ordered them to public public apology to Sanusi to be published in at least, two national dailies.
The judge, who found that Sanusi failed to establish any case against the AGF, struck out the name sued as the fourth respondent.
She held that the fact that the AGF is the nation’s Chief Law Officer, does not mean that he must always be made a party in any case against the government.
