Kano legal professionals accuse FG of political plot behind Sallah Durbar ban

A coalition of human rights legal professionals from Kano has accused the Federal Authorities of orchestrating a political plot towards the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, which they are saying led to the controversial cancellation of Sallah Durbar festivities throughout Kano emirates.

In a strongly-worded petition submitted to the Kano State Commissioner of Police, the Nationwide Discussion board of Kano Indigene Legal professionals challenged the safety alert cited as justification for the ban, describing it as baseless and doubtlessly a canopy for undermining the affect of the reinstated Emir.

The police had earlier prohibited the UNESCO-recognized cultural celebration—labeled as an intangible heritage of humanity—over alleged safety threats. This determination got here even after the fifteenth Emir, Aminu Ado Bayero, canceled his deliberate parallel Durbar.

Addressing journalists shortly after submitting the petition, the group’s chief, Barrister Usman Imam Tudun Wazirchi, insisted that the ban was unjustified.

“The so-called safety risk has no substantial foundation. If Durbars may maintain in high-risk states like Borno, Katsina, and Zamfara, why not in Kano? Even in the course of the peak of Boko Haram’s insurgency, such sweeping bans weren’t enforced,” Tudun Wazirchi argued.

The legal professionals accused political actors and “unpatriotic residents” of spreading worry to suppress the cultural celebration tied to Emir Sanusi’s return to the palace. They emphasised that the ban not solely violates cultural rights but in addition constitutes a broader assault on constitutional freedoms.

Citing a current Courtroom of Attraction judgment that upheld Emir Sanusi’s legitimacy, the group warned towards the misuse of legislation enforcement for political persecution.

Along with addressing their petition to native authorities, the legal professionals additionally despatched their issues to worldwide organizations together with the United Nations, European Union, and African Union—searching for world consideration to what they described as “a calculated assault on Kano’s heritage and rightful conventional management.”