Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has disclosed the alleged mistreatment he faced at the hands of security operatives, including the police, DSS, and others. This occurred when they attempted to forcefully remove him from the Emir palace and exile him to Nasarawa state following his dethronement by the Kano state government.
The former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, who maintained that he was not offered a fair hearing before his dethronement, revealed this in a lawsuit filed on Thursday, March 12. In the lawsuit, he challenged his detention and confinement in Awe by stating that he was harassed and coerced out of the palace without the opportunity to collect his personal belongings.
Sanusi accused the Kano State Commissioner of Police of issuing an order for him to be flown to Abuja without his family members, who were to be in a separate aircraft.
In an affidavit attached to the lawsuit, Sanusi’s Chief of Staff, Da Buram Kano, stated;
“I firmly believe that the state government purportedly removed the applicant from office as the Emir Kano on March 9, 2020 without any basis or justification whatsoever and without granting him a hearing on any allegation. The applicant, however, is 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 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 jeopardize 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.
“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 the company of 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 the 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.
“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 requested the court to order the respondents to compensate him with N50m for the unlawful and unconstitutional arrest and detention, and to publish an unreserved written apology in at least three national dailies for violating his fundamental human rights.
The dethroned monarch also sought a restraining order against the respondents and their agents from banishing him from Kano or any other place of his choice, as that would 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 the 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.