The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, fixed Friday, 12th of January 2024, for judgment in the Kano state governorship election appeals.
According to Daily Trust, the secretary of the legal team for the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Barrister Bashir Tudun Wuzirci, confirmed this, saying, “Yes, it is officially confirmed. They have told us to appear on Friday for the judgment. “They told us that each party should not have more than two counsels in attendance.
“This, they said, is because they will be delivering seven judgments on that same Friday,” he said.
Back story
The Informant247 reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Abba Kabir Yusuf, the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18, 2023 in Kano.
Professor Ahmad Doko Ibrahim, the returning officer, while announcing the final result said, Yusuf polled
1,019,602 votes to defeat his closest rival of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nasir Yusuf Gawuna, who polled 890,705 votes.
The declaration was made in the early hours of Monday amid growing tension in the state.
Ensuing legal battle
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the result, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Nasir Gawuna, approached the court, where the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal made a landmark ruling, nullifying the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf while declaring the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner of the March 18 election.
Yusuf, who contested on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), had initially been declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This declaration led to congratulatory messages, including one from Nasir Gawuna, his APC rival. However, the APC remained resolute and pursued the matter in court.
On Wednesday, a three-man panel presiding over the case ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of return that INEC had presented to Governor Yusuf.
The tribunal directed the issuance of a certificate of return to Nasir Gawuna.
The tribunal’s judgment was based on a deduction of 165,663 votes from Governor Yusuf’s total vote count, deeming these ballots invalid.
The reason behind this invalidation was that the ballot papers in question, numbering 165,663, lacked the required stamps or signatures, rendering them ineligible in the electoral process.
Meanwhile, Abba Kabir Yusuf, the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the State governor, rejected the tribunal ruling and headed to the Appeal Court, where the appellate court also nullified his election while upholding the verdict of the tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay which sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023.
The lower court had declared 165,663 votes of Yusuf, who contested under the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), invalid because they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), whereas the governor’s votes were reduced to 853,939 while those of Nasir Ganuwa, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, remained at 890,705.
Yusuf had rejected the tribunal verdict, which he described as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice”, and headed to the appeal court.
Wole Olanipekun, SAN, the lead counsel for Yusuf, at the court, asked that the tribunal’s judgement be set aside.
Kicking against the ruling on ballot papers, the senior lawyer said that was the first time in history that a tribunal would annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers, arguing further that that was the first time that a political party would file a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition and the candidate would declare the winner of the polls.
But Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel for APC, countered him, saying the Appeal Court stated emphatically that the non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral malpractice.
The Informant247 had on Thursday reported that the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja had fixed November 17 for the judgment in the appeal of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s file to challenge his removal by the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.