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The Kano State House of Assembly has launched a fresh probe against the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi ll, over alleged violation of ‘‘some Hausa norms, culture and traditions’’. At yesterday’s plenary, the Chairman, House Committee on Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Zubairu Hamza Massu, said he received two petitions against the emir on March 2, 2020, for onward transmission to the House.

Presenting the petitions to the House, Massu said one of them was from the Kano State Society for Promotion of Education and Culture, and signed by Muhammad Bello Abdullahi, and the other was from an individual named;Muhammad Mukhtar Ja’en Yamma. Massu added that the petitioners, who backed their petitions with video clips contained in flash drive, requested the House to investigate the emir’s actions which they alleged contradict the Hausa norms, values, culture and sometimes religion.
Shortly after he laid the petition before the House, the Speaker, Alhaji Abdulazeez Garba Gafasa sought the opinion of other members over the transmission of the report to the House Committee on Public Complaints and Petitions and the period within which the committee should finish its work and report back. The assembly unanimously agreed that the report should be transmitted to the committee but offered two options on the duration within which the committee should finish its assignment. Two members; Tasi’u Ibrahim Zabainawa and Tasi’u Abdullahi suggested that the committee should be given one week to finish its assignment while Sani Muhammad from Bunkure Local Government suggested that only four days be given to the committee to handle the work. Finally, the House directed the committee to finish its assignment within one week and report back. The Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Hamza Ibrahim Ci-Dari; Majority Leader, Alhaji Kabiru Hassan Dashi and Chief Whip, Alhaji Tasi’u Ibrahim Zabainawa, were incorporated into the committee, thereby making the membership, eight. Shortly after committing the report to the committee, a member from Dala Local Government, Alhaji Lawal Hassan Chediyar Yan-Gurasa, raised an objection, insisting that the House ought to have established the authenticity of the petitions before transmitting same to the committee. He further stated that the House must know the petitioners and those who signed it before accepting it, noting that “one way of establishing this is by summoning the petitioners to appear before the House. Again, the petition should be read during the session before transmitting it to the committee. “We are lawmakers, it is uncalled-for, for the House to just accept the petitions without verifying its authenticity’’, he said.

Reacting to this position, the Speaker said Section 3(b) of the House Rules has empowered the House Committee on Public Complaints and Petitions to study and make necessary findings regarding petitions. Also reacting, Massu said Chediyar Yan-Gurasa misunderstood the House Rules, noting that such petitions always come to the House either through the executive or members. He said: “Whenever a member of the public wants to present a petition or lodge a complaint before the House, that person must channel his petition or complaint either through the executive or any of the members. “What the petitioners want from the House, is to call the emir to order, because as a public figure and emir for that matter, the monarch should not have sent his daughter to represent him at a public event. I can vividly recall that this is one of the allegations raised by the petitioners. And the petitioners want the emir to restrain himself from engaging in any action that is capable of tarnishing our norms, values and culture.