BREAKING: Supreme Court Returns Abba Yusuf as Kano Governor
The Supreme Court has restored Governor Abba Yusuf of New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, as the valid winner of the governorship election that held in Kano State.
The apex court in an unanimous decision by a five-member panel of justices on Friday, vacated the concurrent judgement 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 the winner of the gubernatorial election.
In the lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, the Supreme Court held that the two lower courts wrongly deducted valid votes that were 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 the 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 stamped and signed, only that they 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 and was duly issued by INEC, were not totally invalid.
Besides, the court held that there were no evidence that Governor Yusuf influenced the non signing of ballot papers.
More so, the court faulted the lower courts for nullifying Yusuf’s election on the premise that he was not a member of the NNPP.
It held that the issue of sponsorship of a candidate in an election was within the domestic affairs of a political party
