Anxiety grips Abba Yusuf, NNPP as Supreme Court reserves judgment in Kano gov poll

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved judgment in the appeal by Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State challenging the ruling of the Appeal Court that sacked him from office.

The five-member panel of justices led by John Okoro reserved judgement in the case on Thursday after hearing closing arguments from both parties.

Yusuf and the New Nigeria People Party had filed an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s November 17 ruling, which declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the March 26, 2023 governorship poll.

The appeal court sitting in Abuja had upheld the ruling of the tribunal that sacked Yusuf and declared Gawuna of APC as the winner of the March election.

However, at the proceeding on Thursday, Yusuf’s counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), urged the court to set aside the decision of the appeal court and tribunal.

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He asked the apex court to determine whether or not, the guidelines of INEC would be a basis for nullifying the election victory of his candidate who won the election by a margin of over 100,000.

Olanipekun argued that this is the first time in the annals of electoral jurisprudence that an election was nullified on the grounds that ballot papers were not signed or stamped at the back.

He said INEC guidelines do not envisage that the courts would nullify an election on the basis of INEC purportedly failing to stamp ballot papers on the back.

The lawyer also faulted the decision of the appeal court on its verdict on Abba’s membership of the NNPP.

He said, “The judgment of the lower courts is very unfair to the appellant and we urge your lordships to upturn it. The issue of Abba’s membership of the NNPP is a pre-election matter. The appellate court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.”

The five-man panel led by Justice John Okoro asked Olanipekun if the issue brought before the apex court was raised or determined at the lower courts.

“I have one question for you. At both courts, was the issue of the source of ballot papers determined or raised at all?” Okoro asked.

“Nobody raised the legality or illegality of the ballots. They tendered the ballot from the bar. Nobody spoke to it,” Olanipekun replied.

“What I want to find out is if the ballots were illegal,” Okoro asked again.

“They were not illegal,” Olanipekun replied, saying the ballot papers were issued by INEC officials.

The All Progressives Congress counsel, Akin Olujimi, maintained that the Electoral Act mandates INEC presiding officers to sign the back of ballot papers after the conclusion of the election.