Court Of Appeal Affirms Sack Of Kano State Gov 

THE Court of  Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the verdict of Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sacked Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State.

A three-man panel of judges led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay had on 20 September  2023, declared 165,663 of Governor Yusuf’s votes invalid because they were not signed or stamped by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The governor’s votes were then reduced to 853,939 while those of Nasir Ganuwa, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, remained at 890,705.

Governor Yusuf contested the 18 March 2023 on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP),

Yusuf had rejected the tribunal verdict, which he described as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice”, and headed to the appeal court.

At the court, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), lead for Yusuf, asked that the judgement of the tribunal be set aside.

Kicking against the ruling on ballot papers, the senior lawyer said that was the first time in history that a tribunal would annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers.

He had said the tribunal erred, arguing further that, that was the first time that a political party would file a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition and the candidate would declared winner of the polls.

But Akin Olujimi (SAN), counsel for APC, countered him saying the Appeal Court stated emphatically that the non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral.

Governor Yusuf now has the option of approaching the Supreme Court for a possible upturn of the verdict. 

Eighteen-Eleven Media