Nigeria’s Emir of Kano dies

Published Jun 6, 2014

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Abuja - One of Nigeria's most prominent Islamic leaders, the Emir of Kano, has died after a long battle with cancer, palace and state government sources told AFP on Friday. He was 83.

Ado Abdullahi Bayero, who with the Sultan of Sokoto and Shehu of Borno was part of the triumvirate of influential traditional monarchs in the Muslim-majority north, had been emir since 1963.

He had kept a low-profile recently because of his illness. He was to be buried according to Islamic rites later on Friday.

The Kano and Borno clerics had previously survived assassination attempts by Boko Haram insurgents angered by what they saw as their betrayal of Islam for submitting to the authority of Nigeria's secular government. - AFP

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