By Yusufu Shehu Usman

Any Law that subjects a citizen to exile and detention without an Order of the Court, is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience
It is also incompatible with our democratic constitution
I am sure if you check the provisions of the Emirate Council law of Kano State, you will not find it anywhere stated that the governor has the power to banish an Emir consequent upon deposition from the throne
May be that is why the Attorney General of Kano state who is supposed to be conversant with the Emirates Law, was unable to admit that Emir Sanusi was banished by the government
If there was any such provision empowering the governor to send a deposed Emir to exile and banishment, the Attorney General would have heavily relied on that law to defend the action of the Government, I contend that even if there is such a provision, the Attorney General did not deem fit to cite it, or cite any other law or Judicial precedent that supports the action of the government
Unfortunately for the learned Attorney General all he could allude to was an ancient and colonial tradition which he called the practice of that time
Unknown to the Attorney General even that practice ( because there has never been a law on banishment in the annals of the chequered history of Nigerian law), was declared illegal and a breach of personal freedom of a deposed Emir by the then Privy Council, the highest Judicial authority in colonial Nigeria
And if has no knowledge of the Judgement of the Privy Council on the matter, there is no way the recent decision of the court of Appeal in the celebrated Jokolo case, should have escaped his knowledge, being the current state of the law on the issue of banishment
It is my respectful contention that even if the Emirate Council Law under which Sanusi was purportedly dethroned has a provision empowering the governor to send a deposed Emir to exile or banishment ( which is not conceded), that provision would have been incompatible with Chapter Two of the Constitution and to the extent of it’s conflict and incompatibility with the Constitution, such a provision of the Emirate Law will be null and void
This argument is only of academic value because there is no such power conferred on the governor to banish any body let alone a deposed Emir
In the final analysis, the Kano state government only embarked on a frolic and acted with reckless abandon
It was illegality and impunity taken to the absurd and disgraceful limit that flies in the face of the law and the Constitution
Sanusi Lamido will certainly have his lapses or even infractions of the law and / or policies of Government ( which I am not defending here) but no matter how grave his sins may be, he can’t not be dethroned except in compliance with the law and he can never be banished because his rights against it is guaranteed by the Constitution
Ganduje goofed big time. He could simply have removed Sanusi from the stool in a quiet and less controversial manner.
He has full control over the State anti corruption Commission which he gave orders to, to Investigate Sanusi
As Nigerians we know that he could direct the Commission to return the report indicting Sanusi and based on that he proceed an query him and since he is the sole authority that would determine whether by his reply, Sanusi has exculpate himself or not, Ganduje could simply hold that Sanusi’s response to the query was not satisfactory. He can then proceed to dethrone him
At least if this procedure was followed, Sanusi can not convincingly claim that he has been denied the right to fair hearing
And Ganduje would have given his Attorney General some confidence and something to explain to the public not the ignorance and falsehood he dished out this morning through the Channels Television program.