Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Supreme Court on Friday reversed the sack of Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State.
A five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice John Okoro, in reversing the sack of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP’s) govery, held that the Court of Appeal was wrong in affirming the judgment of the tribunal which held that Yusuf did not win majority of lawful votes cast at the March election in Kano State.
The apex court, in determining the case, raised two issues — whether the lower court was right in deducting the 165,000 votes and whether the lower court was right in entertaining the issue of membership of political parties.
According to Justice Okoro, the tribunal was wrong in deducting 165,616 votes accrued to Yusuf at the election on grounds that the ballot papers were not signed and stamped by officials of INEC.
In addition, the court held that Section 71 of the Electoral Act relied upon by the lower court to deduct the alleged disputed votes does not apply in the instant case.
“The provision does not refer to any regulation or action at the polling units,” adding that the provision was to the exclusion of ballot papers.
Having so held, the apex court went ahead to restore the deducted 165,616 votes to reinstate the victory of Yusuf at the governorship election.
“The decision of the trial court cannot stand, all the ballot papers are hereby restored,” Justice Okoro said, adding that the evidence did not show that the appellant interfered with the ballot papers not signed.
On the second issue, the apex court also faulted the Court of Appeal for holding that Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP as at the time he contested the election, adding that the issue of nomination and sponsorship is a pre-election matter and outside the jurisdiction of the court.
Besides, Okoro observed that contrary to the appellate court, the tribunal never held that Yusuf was not qualified to contest the poll but that his name was not in the NNPP’s membership register submitted to INEC.
The apex court subsequently set aside the judgment of the two lower courts for being perverse and restored the electoral victory of Abba Yusuf.
INEC had declared Abba Yusuf of the NNPP winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Kano State, having won majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.
But the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, in a judgment in September 2023, voided Yusuf’s election after it deducted over 160,000 votes accrued to the NNPP on the grounds that the ballot papers used for the poll were not signed and stamped by officials of the electoral umpire.
The deduction then gave Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the lead and was subsequently declared as the duly elected governor of Kano State.
Yusuf and the NNPP in their appeal urged the apex court to set aside the two lower courts’ decisions because the tribunal erred in law when it deducted his over 160,000 votes on account of not been signed and stamped by INEC officials.
Besides, the appellants further faulted the judgment of the appellate court, arguing that the issue of nomination and sponsorship is a pre-election matter, which the appellate court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain.
They therefore urged the Supreme Court to nullify and set aside the concurrent judgments of the two lower courts and affirm his election as duly elected governor of Kano State.
Details later…
