TheCable

Ibrahim Muktar, attorney-general of Kano, says the state government did not banish Muhammadu Sanusi II, deposed emir, from the state.

The Kano executive council chaired by Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the state, had removed Sanusi from the throne for alleged “total disrespect to the office of the governor”, among other allegations.

After his dethronement, the ex-monarch was first moved to Loko community in Nasarawa state but was relocated to another part of the state.

Speaking on Channels Television on Wednesday, the attorney-general said the government only removed Sanusi from office for insubordination.

When asked if the emir has been banished from Kano, Muktar responded: “Of course, of course”. But when the question was asked a second time, Muktar denied the banishment, saying it was not part of the state government’s decision.

He said the former emir was only taken out of Kano state by the police owing to intelligence reports, adding that he is not aware of any decision to 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,” he 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.”

He said the decision to dethrone Sanusi was not based on the issues in court, but on administrative grounds.

“The state government has not taken the law into its hands. Let me explain that the decision to remove the emir from office is administrative and was not based on the issues pending before the court. All the issues pending before the court have not to do with the removal of the emir or the dethronement,” he said.

“No decision on that actually (continuation of Sanusi’s probe). I cannot pre-empt the position of the government on whether investigation will stop or will continue.”

Sanusi’s lawyers had asked for the release of the former emir, saying his forced relocation to Nasarawa is illegal and unconstitutional.