Photo: Gov Abba Yusuf of Kano State.
Breaking: Supreme Court affirms Kano Gov Yusuf’s election
By Mark Longyen
The Supreme court has affirmed the election of Kano State Gov Abba Yusuf, thereby, reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal and the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which had earlier nullified his election.
Delivering judgment on Friday in Abuja, Justice John Okoro, who read the lead Judgement of the apex court’s decision, held that both the Court of Appeal and the Election Tribunal erred in law by their decisions to sack the Governor.
Periscope International reports that the Court of Appeal and the Tribunal had both sacked Yusuf on the ground that the Governor did not win the majority of lawful votes cast in the governorship election of March 18, 2023.
However, The Supreme court Panel of five Justices, in determining the case, formulated two issues for determination:
Whether the lower court was right in deducting 165,616 from the votes the Independent National Electoral Commission announced for the governor and whether the lower court could determine the issue of party membership.
The Apex Court held that the tribunal was wrong in deducting 165,616 votes accrued to Yusuf in the election on grounds that the ballot papers were not signed and stamped by officials of INEC.
It said that Section 71 of the Electoral Act relied upon by the tribunal to deduct the disputed votes does not apply in the instant case.
The Court, therefore, decided to restore the deducted 165,616 votes and reinstated the victory of Yusuf in the governorship election as earlier declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Ruling on the second issue, the Supreme Court also faulted the Court of Appeal for holding that Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP as of the time he contested the election.
According to the Supreme Court, the issue of nomination and sponsorship is a pre-election matter and outside the jurisdiction of the court.
It observed that contrary to the decision of the Court of Appeal, 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.
Justice Okoro described the judgments of the two courts below as being “perverse, null and void” and upheld the Governor’s election.
