Appeal Court re-instates Dan-Agundi as Gabasawa district head

The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna yesterday ordered the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, and the Kano Emirate Council to re-instate Alhaji Aminu Babban Dan-Agundi as the District Head of Gabasawa in Kano state.
Dan-Agundi, who was the Sarkin Dawakin Maituta and one of the four kingmakers in the Kano Emirate Council, was removed from office as district head in 2003 by the Emir of Kano, on the grounds of insubordination and alleged partisanship.
But the district head denied the allegations, saying that he was not given a fair hearing following which he then challenged his removal at the Kano High Court presided over by Justice Gadi Mato.
The court in 2011 declared that  the suspension and removal of the plaintiff as the traditional title holder of Sarkin Dawakin Maituta and district head of  Gabasawa was carried out against the rules of natural justice and fair hearing and therefore unlawful and unconstitutional, null and void.
The lower court also ordered setting aside the suspension and removal of the district head and kingmaker of the Kano Emirate Council and subsequently gave an order that the removed district head be paid his salary and allowances from December 2003 to the time of the judgment.
However, the Kaduna division of the Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the judgment of the lower court.
In a – 25 minutes- unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Theresa Orji-Abadua, the Appellate Court upheld that the title of the Sarkin Dawakin Maituta was not at the discretion of the Emir of Kano, noting that the title was hereditary going by the approval given by the state government in 1990 by the then Military Administrator of Kano state, Gen. Idris Garba (rtd).