The Supreme Court has reaffirmed Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, as winner of the governorship election that held in Kano State on March 18.
The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of Justices, on Friday, vacated the judgments of the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which sacked governor Yusuf and declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressive Congress, APC, as winner of the gubernatorial polls.
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In the lead judgement delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, the Supreme Court held that the two lower courts wrongly deducted valid votes credited to governor Yusuf by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
It held that the 165,663 votes that were deducted from Yusuf and the NNPP on the premise that ballot papers were not signed, stamped or dated, were valid.
The court held that contrary to the position of the lower courts, a total of 146, 292 of the ballot papers were confirmed to have been signed and stamped, but did not contain any date.
It held that by section 63(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, that ballot papers, which bore the official mark, were duly issued by INEC.
Besides, the court held that there was no evidence that governor Yusuf influenced the non signing of the ballot papers.
The Supreme court also faulted the lower courts for nullifying Yusuf’s election on the premise that he was not a member of the NNPP.
The Apex court wondered if the lower court was right in entertaining the issue of membership of political parties and held that nomination and sponsorship of a candidate in an election is a pre-election, internal matter of a political party and outside the jurisdiction of the court.
The Supreme court Panel of five Justices, subsequently went ahead to restore the deducted 165,616 votes and reinstate the victory of Yusuf at the governorship election
It held that Yusuf won the governorship election by majority of lawful votes and was duly nominated by his political party.
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