Kano Assembly reverses dissolution of three emirates, downgrades emirs

The Kano House of Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to reverse the dissolution of three emirates in the state but also downgrading their emirs from first-class to second-class status.

In May, the lawmakers amended the emirate council law of the state to scrap the emirates of Gaya, Rano, Karaye and Bichi and restoring Kano as the only emirate in the state.

The development, which saw the removal of all the five sitting emirs and the reinstatement of Lamido Sanusi as the emir of Kano, led to an ongoing crisis in the state and battles in the law courts.

On Tuesday, the lawmakers maintained the scrapping of Bichi emirate and restored the emirate of Gaya, Karaye and Rano but downgraded their emirs and reduced the number of local government areas under their domain.

This is significant as the constitution allocates five per cent of federal allocations to local governments to the traditional institutions in the areas.

The lawmakers said they took the first reading of the bill before embarking on a recess on 23 May, although this was not reported in the media.

The Speaker of the House, Jibril Falgore, presided over the plenary on Tuesday.

After the second and third reading of the bill, the deputy speaker, Muhammad Bello, moved for the adoption and passage of the bill.

The lawmakers approved the downgrading of the scrapped emirates to second-class emirates.

The new second-class emirates include Rano with Rano as headquarters and Bunkure and Kibiya LGAs under it.

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Karaye Emirate has Karaye as the council headquarters and Rogo LGA as part of its domain.

Also, Gaya Emirate with its headquarters in Gaya has Ajingi, and Albasu LGA under it.

The new twist in the state followed the repeal of the State Emirate Council Law 2019 on 23 May.