Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has been in a crucial meeting with the state’s Council of Chiefs since he returned from the State House of Assembly where he presented the state’s appropriation bill for 2021.

As at 6:30pm on Tuesday, it was gathered that El-Rufai was still in a meeting with the traditional council as well as some members of his cabinet including the state Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan.

The governor while presenting the 2021 budget before the State House Assembly stated that his administration was working on the chieftaincy and traditional council bill which will be forwarded to the house.

“We shall be approaching the house with more bills to further strengthen governance in the state,” he stated.

One of the bills as mentioned by the governor was the chieftaincy and Traditional Council bill which he said “will entrench the reform of the chieftaincy system, specify composition and classification of emirates and traditional council and update the provisions of colonial laws and chieftaincy matters that we inherited.”

The creation of the bill comes on the heels of speculations that El-Rufai is trying to balkanize the Zazzau emirate into three emirates to accommodate the top three contenders for the throne.

Daily Trust has reached out to both the government and the state legislature for a reaction but is yet to get any.

Eyewitness reports that there is increased security presence in Zaria as speculation are rife that the governor will likely make an announcement.

The Zazzau emirate is a first chiefdom which is also the largest emirate in Kaduna state, comprising of 11 local government areas including Zaria, Sabon Gari, Giwa, Kudan, Makarfi, Ikara, Kubau, Soba, Igabi, Kaduna north and Kaduna south LGAs.

The stool became vacant on September 20, following the death of the 18th emir, Alhaji Shehu Idris who died at the age of 84 after a brief illness at the 44 Reference hospital, Kaduna.

Governor El-Rufai last week directed the five kingmakers of the Zazzau emirate to begin fresh selection of candidates for the 19th emir of Zazzau after it jettisoned the earlier list submitted to it.

Recent insinuations in the state have it that a bill for the amendment of the emirates and chieftaincy is being prepared for onward submission to the state assembly.

The bill when assented according to speculation will have the Magajin Gari, Alhaji Ahmad Nuhu Bamali, the governor’s ally as the emir of Kaduna, the Yariman Zazzau, Alhaji Muhammed Munnir Jafaru will serve as emir of Zaria and Iyan Zazzau, Alhaji Bashar Aminu as the emir of Kudan. (Daily Trust)

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