The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered a fresh hearing in the legal battle over the disputed Kano Emirate.
The Appellate Court, in a judgement delivered on Friday,10 January, 2025 held that Bayero was denied fair hearing due to the shoddy manner in which the Kano High Court conducted proceedings against him.
Justice Mohammed Mustapha, who delivered the lead judgment, stated that the Kano High Court was unfair to Bayero by conducting proceedings without serving him a hearing notice to enable him to present his case.
He held that all courts of law are bound to ensure justice for all parties by giving them equal opportunities, adding that the conduct of the proceedings against Bayero amounted to a travesty of justice.
Specifically, the Appellate Court held that Bayero ought to have been served with a hearing notice to allow him to present his grievances before judgment was delivered against him in what it described as a shoddy arrangement.
The Court of Appeal, therefore, ordered that the case be remitted to the Chief Judge of the Kano State High Court to be reassigned to another judge for expeditious determination.
Justice Mustapha did not award costs against the respondents in the appeal filed by Alhaji Nasir Ado Bayero.
In a split decision of two Justices to one, the Court of Appeal also stopped the Federal High Court in Kano from adjudicating over the Kano Emirate legal battle.
The appellate court also held that the federal high court has no jurisdiction to dabble into the Kano State Chieftaincy Matters on the ground that such a case can only be determined by Kano high court.
Justice Gabriel Omoniyi Kolawole who delivered the lead judgment on Friday, held that the federal high court has no business adjudicating over the Chieftaincy matters but ordered that the matter be returned to Kano state high court, being the proper court for such matters.
In a split decision of two Justices to one, the Court of Appeal in Abuja has barred the Federal High Court in Kano from adjudicating over the Kano Emirate legal battle.
The appellate court held that the federal high court has no jurisdiction to dabble into the Kano State Chieftaincy Matters on the ground that such a case can only be determined by Kano high court.
Justice Gabriel Omoniyi Kolawole who delivered the lead judgment on Friday, 10 January 2025 held that the federal high court has no business adjudicating over the Chieftaincy matters but ordered that the matter be returned to Kano state high court, being the proper court for such matters.
However, the Presiding Justice, Mustapha Mohammed and another Justice agreed with Justice Kolawole that the federal high court has no jurisdiction to go into the Kano emirate legal battle.
They, however, disagreed with him that the case be returned to the Kano Chief Judge for reassignment to a Judge of the State High Court.
Instead, the two Justices held that the proper order to be made was for striking out of the case and not remittance.
Consequently, the two justices struck out the proceedings of the federal high court on the ground that it has no jurisdiction to have dabbled into the matter in the first instance.
