Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has opened up on how he was allegedly manhandled
by security agents from the police, DSS and others in their effort to
force him out the Emir palace and banish him to Nasarawa state after his
dethronement by the Kano state government.
The former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria who insisted that he
wasn’t given a fair hearing before being dethroned in the lawsuit he
filed on Thursday March 12 to challenge his detention and confinement in
Awe, said that he was harassed and forced out of the palace without
being allowed to pick up his personal belongings.
Sanusi accused the Kano State Commissioner of Police of putting out
an order for him to be flown to Abuja without his family members in
another aircraft.
The deposed Emir’s Chief of Staff, Da Buram Kano said in an affidavit attached to the lawsuit;
“I verily believe the state government purportedly removed the
applicant from office as the Emir Kano on March 9, 2020 without any
basis or justification whatsoever and was not given any hearing on any
allegation on which his removal was predicated.“The applicant is however, not challenging his removal as Emir of Kano in this suit.”
“Sanusi’s forcible relocation from the Palace of the Emir of Kano to
Abuja, and later Nasarawa State, he has not been able to meet or unite
with his wives, children, relatives and friends and that his rights have
been severely curtailed.“I know for a fact that the CP refused the applicant’s requests for
protection and to carry his family with him to Lagos and stated that he
had no such instructions from above, but instead directed that the
applicant be flown to Abuja and then taken to Nasarawa State.“In order not to jeopardise his safety or the safety of any member of
his family or indeed other persons around, the applicant cooperated and
proceeded in the vehicles provided by officers under the command of the
respondents.“They said the Commissioner of Police, along with other officers
under the command of the respondents, harassed and rushed the applicant
out of the Emir Palace, Kano, without letting him take any personal
belongings and personal effects, along with him as they took him into
their waiting vehicles.“The applicant was then taken in company with loads of armed men,
being officers under the command of the respondents, to the Nigerian,
Air Force Base in Kano where he was put in a private aircraft to Abuja
and departed Kano at about 6.40pm.“The applicant was separated from his family who were also carried out of the palace.
“Upon arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, he
was conveyed first to Lafia, then to Loko area of Nasarawa State, after
being driven for about seven hours in the dead of the night.“On March 10, 2020, he was taken back to Lafia and from there to Awe in Nasarawa State.
“That the applicant is personally being detained in Nasarawa State by
agents of the first and second respondents (IG and DG of the DSS),
purporting to carry out the orders of the third and fourth respondents
(Muktar and Malami).“Sanusi has not been alleged to be a threat to peace and security but
rather cooperated with the officers under the command of the
respondents, and has since his travails under the hand of the officers
under the command of the respondents issued public statement of peace
for order, for reconciliation, for cooperation with the new Emir and
the avoidance of any security breach or conflict.”
Sanusi also asked the court to order the respondents to pay him N50m
as damages for the unlawful and unconstitutional arrest and detention,
and also publish an unreserved written apology in at least three
national dailies for a breach of his fundamental human rights.
The dethroned monarch also sought for a restraining order against the
respondents and their agents from banishing him from Kano or any other
place of his choice, which according to him will be a violation of his
fundamental right to reside in any part of Nigeria.
Recall that Justice Anwuili Chikere of the Federal High Court in
Abuja ordered the immediate release of dethroned Emir of Kano, Sanusi
Lamido Sanusi from confinement/detention in Awe community in Nasarawa
state on Friday March 13. The case was subsequently adjourned to March
26 for further hearing.
The respondents to the application are, the Inspector-General of
Police, Muhammed Adamu; the Director General of the Department of State
Service, Yusuf Bichi; the Attorney-General of Kano State, Ibrahim
Muktar, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami,
SAN.
