The Supreme Court, on Friday, set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal which sacked Governor Yusuf Kabir of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Nasiru Gawuna, winner of the March 18 poll.
In the judgment delivered by Justice John Inyang Okoro, the apex court held that the appeal, as filed by the governor challenging his sack has merit and, “is hereby allowed”.
The apex court held that Yusuf Kabir was validly elected as governor of Kano state and that he was also duly sponsored by his political party.
“The judgement of the lower court voiding the election of the appellant is hereby set aside”, Justice Okoro held in the judgement.
The Court of Appeal had, on November 17, in a unanimous judgment of a three-member panel, upheld the decision of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sacked Governor Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and declared Gawuna, winner of the election.
The appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by Governor Yusuf based on his membership status in the NNPP.
However, the judgment had elicited confusion when on Tuesday, November 21, the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court judgment surfaced with contradictions as the CTC showed that all the issues were resolved in favour of Governor Yusuf.
The Court of Appeal acknowledged a clerical error in the CTC of its judgment and promised correction.
Also on Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sadique Abubakar, against the judgment of the Bauchi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upheld Bala Mohammed’s election.
The apex court, in the judgement, resolved all the issues raised by the appellant against him and held that, “Having resolved all the issues against the appellant, this appeal becomes devoid of merit and it is hereby dismissed.
“The judgement of the Court of Appeal is hereby affirmed,” the court held.
The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja had on November 17 dismissed the case which found that Governor Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the governorship election in Bauchi.
The legal team of the APC candidate had urged the appeal court to declare Mohammed’s election null and void because several electoral documents used during the poll were not properly filled.
But Mohammed’s lawyers maintained that the assertions were untrue given the findings of the Tribunal.
The appeal court went on to hold that the APC candidate failed to provide credible evidence and testimony to buttress his allegations regarding electoral malpractice and non-compliance to relevant laws and consequently dismissed the appeal.
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