Godwin Tsa Abuja
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Sunday washed his hands off the dethronement, banishment and detention of the dethroned Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi.
In his suit challenging his banishment from Kano State and detention in Awe, Nasarawa State, Sanusi named Malami and the Attorney-General of Kano State, Ibrahim Muktar, as having instructed the police and the Department of State Services to arrest and detain him after his dethronement.
Both Malami and Muktar are joined along with the Inspector-General Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, as codefendants.
Reacting to the suit, Malami in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr Umar Gwandu, said he “was not in any way connected with the dethronement of the former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, and his subsequent banishment to Nasarawa State.”
He added: “The issue of who does what over the dethronement saga has been effectively submitted for judicial determination. The matter is consequently sub judice.
“Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice will not comment one way or the other over a matter that is pending before the court.”
Sanusi was on March 9 deposed by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for what the state government called ‘total disrespect to lawful instructions from the office of the state government.’
The dethroned monarch was banished to Loko, a remote district in Nasarawa State.
On Tuesday, he was relocated to Awe, where he was detained in a guest house until Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered his release on Friday.
The judge gave the interim order following an ex parte application moved by Sanusi’s lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi