POLITICS – The Appeal Court has scheduled today to deliver judgments on the appeals arising from the election petitions tribunal of Kano State and Bauchi State.
The court will decide on the appeals filed by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, his party the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
These appeals challenge the ruling of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which had ousted the governor and declared Nasir Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner.
A three-man panel of judges, led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, removed Yusuf from office on September 20. They declared 165,663 of his votes invalid because they lacked the necessary signatures or stamps from the INEC.
As a result, the governor’s vote count was reduced to 853,939, while Gawuna’s remained at 890,705. Governor Yusuf expressed his disagreement with the tribunal’s decision, considering it to be unjust and a miscarriage of justice.
Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the lawyer representing Yusuf, requested that the appellate court overturn the tribunal’s decision. He argued that it was unprecedented for an election to be nullified due to the absence of signatures on the back of ballot papers. Olanipekun also pointed out that the tribunal made a mistake by allowing a political party to file a petition without including its candidate, who was subsequently declared the winner of the election.
However, Akin Olujimi (SAN), the lawyer for the APC, countered this argument by stating that the Appeal Court had clearly stated that the failure to sign the ballots constituted electoral malpractice.
Following the hearing, the appellate court reserved its judgement.
The APC and its governorship candidate, former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, have contested the decision of the election petition tribunal in Bauchi State. The tribunal upheld the re-election of Bala Muhammad from the PDP.
