The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Kano State Governor, Abba 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 Gawuna, winner of the governorship election.
Governor Yusuf in his appeal is urging the appellate court to set aside the judgement of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for misapplication of law.
The Counsel for governor Yusuf, Wole Olanipekun, 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, which cannot be a correct position of the law, as he cited the provisions of Section 71 of the Electoral Act 2022.
Olanipekun also argued that the APC governorship candidate in the election was not joined as a party in the petition.
Akin Olujimi, who represented the APC urged the court to uphold the judgement of the Tribunal as non stamping and signing of ballot papers is against the regulations of INEC.
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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 as at the time of the election.
However Olanipekun In his argument on the cross appeal, 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, 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 another appeal filed by INEC, the Commission agreed with the submission of Olanipekun that, the Tribunal erred for 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, as doing so, amount to rewriting election’s jurisprudence and urged the court to set aside the judgement.
But, the Counsel for APC 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.
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.
INEC went on to declare 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.
That declaration led to the Tribunal ruling that the APC candidate was the winner of the governorship election and then ordered INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate of return and give Gawuna a new one.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the tribunal, Governor Yusuf and his party, the NNPP as well as the INEC approached the court appeal challenging the Tribunal’s judgement.
Editor Paul Akhagbemhe
