Supreme Court Reserves Judgment On Kano Governorship Election

The Supreme Court has reserved judgment on the Kano governorship election tussle.

The apex court in a ruling on Thursday, December 21 by a five-member panel of judges led by Justice Inyang Okoro, said the date for the judgment will be communicated to all parties.

Recall the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and its candidate, Governor Abba Yusuf instituted a suit at the Supreme Court challenging the ruling of the election tribunal and the Court of Appeal which sacked Yusuf as governor after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared him the winner of the March 26 gubernatorial election in Kano State.

The tribunal and the Appeal Court sacked Yusuf as governor of the state and declared Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner but the NNPP and its candidate challenged the verdict at the Supreme Court.

After hearing from the parties involved, the five-member panel of judges reserved their decision.

The Kano election tribunal had in September, deducted 165,663 votes from the 1,019,602 recorded for Yusuf at the polls because the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped, signed and dated as required by law.

The tribunal then declared Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner.

This prompted the NNPP and its candidate, to challenge the judgment at the appellate court but the Appeal Court On November 17, upheld the tribunal’s verdict and added that Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP when he contested the election.

However, controversy trailed the verdict days later when a certified true copy (CTC) of the appeal court judgment surfaced, contradicting the November 17 ruling.

The copy of the judgment ruled against and in favour of the NNPP candidate simultaneously, eliciting outrage on social media platforms and the streets but the appeal court later clarified that a clerical error was responsible for the confusion and the judgement sacking Yusuf stands.