Emirship Tussle: Court To Hear Defamation Suit Against Emir Of Zazzau Over RFI Interview

The contention surrounding the 2020 succession to the Zazzau throne has taken a ineligible turn. Members of the royal household person dragged the Emir of Zazzau, Ambassador Ahmad Nuhu Bamalli, earlier the Kaduna State High Court implicit remarks made successful a caller interrogation with Radio France Internationale (RFI).
Dr Nasiru Bashari Aminu, lad of the precocious Iyan Zazzau, Prince Bashari Aminu, filed the suit alleging defamation. He claims the Emir falsely suggested during the RFI interrogation that confidential details of the succession process had been leaked to his precocious begetter by the then-Wazirin Zazzau, Alhaji Ibrahim Aminu.

The household insists the remarks were false, defamatory, and an battle connected the dignity and representation of the precocious prince.

Court filings sighted by this paper amusement that the lawsuit has been slated for proceeding connected November 4, 2025, astatine the Zaria Judicial Division of the High Court of Kaduna State.

The Emir present faces 2 abstracted suits arising from the aforesaid interview. In summation to Dr Nasiru’s case, erstwhile Wazirin Zazzau, Alhaji Ibrahim Aminu, sued the Emir for defamation. challenging his statement of him arsenic “arrogant” and insinuating that helium leaked delicate accusation during the 2020 succession battle.

The suits, brought by 2 of the emirate’s astir elder figures and their families, item the gravity of the Emir’s comments. Both plaintiffs reason that his words, aired internationally, carried the value of authorization but inflicted reputational harm connected respected elders of the emirate.

The contented is particularly delicate for the precocious Iya Bashari Aminu‘s family. Though helium secured the highest votes from kingmakers during the 2020 succession, helium was not selected. Yet, the household notes, helium ne'er maligned the institution, alternatively urging his children and kinsmen to pledge loyalty to the recently installed Emir portion helium sought ineligible redress successful court. To present formed him successful the airy of impropriety, years aft his death, they insist, is an wounded excessively sedate to ignore.

Legal observers constituent retired that the Emir’s remarks whitethorn person been ill-judged, fixed the sanctity accorded to the representation of deceased royals successful Hausa-Fulani contented and the wide scope of an planetary broadcast. They reason that the fallout has transformed a family‘s request for an apology into a high-profile ineligible showdown.

Analysts besides pass that the lawsuit could person implications for the emirate‘s image, with the Emir expected to support his words successful unfastened tribunal alternatively than nether the authorization of the throne.

As the November 4th proceeding approaches, anticipation is precocious wrong Zaria and beyond. The proceedings is intimately watched arsenic it pits representation against power, contented against recklessness, and the quest for dignity against contested narratives.