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Appeal Court reserves judgement in Kano guber dispute

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Monday reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) against the judgment of the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which declared the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, winner of the governorship election.

Before the Court are the main appeal and three other cross-appeals.

In the main appeal, the Appellant, Governor Yusuf is urging the appellate court to set aside the judgement of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for misapplication of law.

Counsel to the governor, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), while adopting his brief of arguments said the main issue in the matter was the voiding of ballot papers for not being stamped or signed cannot be a correct position of law and cited the provisions of Section 71 of the Electoral Act 2022 to back his arguments.

He argued that the APC governorship candidate in the election was not joined as a party in the petition.

Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN) representing the APC urged the court to uphold the judgement of the Tribunal as non-stamping and signing of ballot papers is against INEC’s regulations.

On the non-joining of the APC governorship candidate in the petition at the Tribunal, Olujimi said votes are cast for political parties and members benefit from the outcome.

The court also reserved judgement in the cross-appeal by the APC challenging the eligibility of Governor Yusuf to contest the election, having not been a registered member of the NNPP at the time of the election.

In his argument on the cross-appeal, Olanipekun said, it is a mere academic exercise as the Supreme Court had ruled that political parties decide who their candidates are.

In another appeal by the NNPP, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) argued that the Tribunal was wrong to delve into recounting of ballot papers in chambers, as was done and arrived in the cancellation of more than 165, 000 votes from the governor’s total votes in 32 Local Government Areas.

In the appeal filed by INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), representing the Commission agreed with the submission of Olanipekun that, the Tribunal erred in carrying out a recount of ballot papers in chambers and not in an open court to arrive at the judgement, as Tribunals are restrained from doing so under Section 137 of the Electoral Act.

He said, the primary function of the court is to give effect to the will of voters, not to recount or recalculate as doing so, amounts to rewriting the election’s jurisprudence and urged the court to set aside the judgement.

But, APC’s counsel prayed the court to uphold the judgement of the Tribunal as all the necessary processes were followed to order the recount in accordance with the Evidence Act.

It would be recalled that, on September 20, 2023, the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacked Governor Yusuf and declared 165,663 of his votes invalid, saying they were not signed or stamped by INEC.

Then, INEC declared Yusuf the winner of the March 18, 2023 election after he secured 1,019,602 votes against his opponent Nasiru Gawuna who secured 890,705 votes.

But, after the tribunal deducted the 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s tally, his votes were reduced to 853, 939, which were over 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Gawuna of the APC.

Going by that declaration, the Tribunal then ruled that the APC candidate was the winner of the governorship election and ordered INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate of return and give Gawuna a new one.

This prompted Governor Yusuf and his party, the NNPP as well as the INEC to appeal the Tribunal’s judgement wishing to be upturned in their favour.

The three-member panel of Justices of the court reserved judgement in the appeals to a date that will be communicated to parties in the matter.

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