A panel comprising five members of the apex court has ruled that both the tribunal and the court of appeal made errors in dismissing Abba Yusuf, the candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), as the governor of the state.
The supreme court had reserved judgment after hearing the appeals on December 21, 2023. In March 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Yusuf the winner of the Kano governorship election, where he scored 1,019,602 votes, defeating Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 890,705 votes.
In September, the Kano governorship election petition tribunal had removed Yusuf as the governor, deducting 165,663 votes due to unstamped, unsigned, and undated ballot papers, as required by law. Subsequently, Gawuna was declared the winner.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the NNPP and its candidate contested the judgment at the appellate court.
THE JUDGMENT
The panel, led by John Okoro, found fault with the tribunal’s decision to invalidate 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s total. The tribunal had deducted the votes because the ballot papers lacked the required stamp and signature by INEC as stipulated in Section 71 of the Electoral Act.
However, the supreme court ruled that the ballot papers could not be invalidated since they originated from an official booklet with the logos and map of Nigeria. The court stated that the petitioners failed to prove that the ballot papers were not part of the booklet deployed by INEC to presiding officers in the polling units.
Regarding the issue of party membership, the court emphasized that it is an internal matter immune to challenge by a member of another party. Consequently, the court set aside the lower court’s judgment voiding the election of the appellant.
‘CLERICAL ERROR’:
On November 17, 2023, the court of appeal upheld the tribunal’s verdict, asserting that Yusuf was not an NNPP member during the election. However, a certified true copy (CTC) of the appeal court judgment surfaced, contradicting the November 17 ruling and causing uproar on social media and the streets. The appeal court later attributed the discrepancies to a “clerical error.”
In the recent ruling, Okoro of the supreme court stated, “There is no proof that the said ballot papers were not the ones used at the election.” He added, “Thus the decision of the court of appeal affirming the decision of the tribunal ought to be set aside. What is the effect of a ballot paper not having the marks by the electoral commission? A ballot paper that does not bear INEC mark is not invalid by all purposes. Finally, the lower court wrongly misconstrued its evaluation of the ballot papers. This amounts to perversion. Accordingly, all the ballot papers are restored to Governor Yusuf.”
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