Court orders the immediate release of Dethroned Emir Sanusi from house arrest

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the immediate release of dethroned Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from house arrest and solitary confinement.

Justice Anwuli Chikere made the order in an ex-parte ruling this morning after listening to Sanusi’s Lawyer Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) who argued a motion ex-parte to that effect.

The order, made interim, is directed at the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Attorney General of Kano State and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) – who are all named as respondents in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed on March 12, 2020, by Sanusi.

Justice Chikere, in the ruling, said:

“An interim order of this honourable court releasing the applicant from the detention and or confinement of the respondents and restoring the applicant’s rights to human dignity, personal liberty, freedom of association and movement in Nigeria, (apart from Kano State) pending the hearing and determination of the applicant’s originating summons.”

The judge also granted the applicant leave to serve a copy of the release order and the processes in relation to the substantive suit on the respondents through substituted means.

Justice Chikere allowed Sanusi to serve the defendants in the following manner: On the IGP, through any officer in his office at the police headquarters at Louis Edet House, Garki, Abuja; on the the the DG DSS, through any officer at the DSS headquarters at Aso Drive in Abuja; on the AG of Kano State, through any officer at the sate’s Ministry of Justice, Audu Bako Secretariat, Kano, and on the AGF, through any officer at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja.

Sanusi is, by the substantive suit, challenging his purported banishment to a community in Nasarawa State, arguing that such restriction violated his constitutionally guaranteed rights.

This is a developing story, more details shortly…