The Supreme Court on Friday, January 12, 2024 restored Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as the validly elected governor of Kano State in the election that held March 18, 2023.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of Justices, vacated the concurrent judgements 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 winner of the governorship election.
Delivering the lead judgement of the apex court, Justice Inyang Okoro, declared that the two lower courts wrongly deducted valid votes that were credited to Governor Yusuf by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stressing that the 165,663 votes that were deducted from Yusuf and the NNPP on the premise the ballot papers were not signed, stamped or dated, were valid.
The court further held that contrary to the position of the lower courts, a total of 146, 292 of the ballot papers were confirmed to have been signed and stamped, only that they did not contain any date thus, declared 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.
The Supreme Court also held there was no evidence that Governor Yusuf influenced the non-signing of the ballot papers and therefore faulted the lower courts for nullifying Yusuf’s election on the ground that he was not a member of the NNPP.
The apex court also held that the issue of sponsorship of a candidate in an election was within the domestic affairs of a political party and accordingly held that Yusuf won the governorship election by a majority of lawful votes and was also duly nominated by his political party.
