The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday upheld the sack of Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and declared Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the duly elected governor of the state.
In a unanimous judgment of a three-member panel delivered by Justice Moore Adumein, the appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by the Kano State Governor against the judgment of the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which declared the APC flagbearer, Gawuna, as the winner of the state’s governorship election held on March 18.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Yusuf as the winner of the March 18, 2023, election, having scored a total votes cast of 1,019,602 to defeat Gawuna who got 890,705 of the votes cast.
However, the APC approached the Tribunal with a petition to annul the declaration of Gawuna as the winner of the Kano State Governorship election on the grounds that the said election was conducted in gross violation of the constitution and the electoral law.
The party alleged electoral malpractices in the conduct of the March 18 governorship election in Kano State.
The Tribunal, in its judgment, agreed with the APC and nullified Yusuf’s election, adding that over 160,000 ballot papers “were not signed or stamped by INEC”.
Yusuf’s votes were subsequently reduced to 853,939 while Gawuna’s 890,705 votes were not affected.
The three-man panel of the Tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023, after deducting 165,663 of his votes.
The governor then filed an appeal before the appellate court to challenge the judgment of the Tribunal.
In its judgment on Friday, the three-man panel of the appellate court held that it can be seen that the Tribunal acted in the overall interest of justice when it allowed APC’s tendering of documents during trial because INEC released documents to the party in piecemeal to defeat the petitioner’s claim.
The appeal court also held that the insistence that APC ought to have joined its candidate, Gawuna, as a party at the Tribunal proceedings was not backed by the 1999 Constitution, as a candidate is entitled to be represented by his political party during litigation.
The three-member panel of the court held that every political party shall maintain the register of its voters, adding that the appellant, to his own detriment, did not submit his NNPP membership register or even tender his statement on oath regarding his membership of the party.
The court said the 1999 Constitution made it mandatory for a political party to have a membership register and submit the same to INEC and the Tribunal when needed.
The court added that the name of Abba is not in the NNPP’s membership register and held that, “As rightfully found, Yusuf Abba was not a member of the NNPP at the time he was purportedly sponsored by his party and was not qualified to contest the March 18 Governorship Election.
“If you claim to be a member of a political party, is it not logical for you to say so by yourself and not by proxy?
“Even though membership of a political party is an internal affair, a political party cannot be permitted to circumvent or breach the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
“The Tribunal was wrong not to have disqualified the appellant. Therefore, the failure of the appellant and the NNPP to comply with the 1999 Constitution is fatal to their election.
“All issues in this appeal are dismissed, and the judgment of the Tribunal is affirmed,” the court held and affirmed the judgment of the trial Tribunal.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE