Court orders immediate release of Sanusi

Following the dethronement of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir of Kano and banishment from the State, the Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered his release from confinement/detention.

The order was given by Justice Anwuli Chikere in an ex-parte ruling Today, after listening to lawyer to Sanusi, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) who argued a motion ex-parte to that effect.

Justice Chokers directed the order, made interim, 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.

“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,” Justice Chikere said in the ruling.

He 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.

The judge 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 constitutionaly guaranteed rights.