Your judgment is wrong on Kano election - Supreme Court.

 The Supreme Court has dismissed the judgment delivered by the Election Petition Tribunal and the Appeal court as it  has affirmed the victory of Governor Abba Yusuf as the validly elected governor of Kano state in the March 18,2023 election.

Delivering a judgment today , a five man panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro while reversing the decision of the Kano state tribunal and the court of appeal, cited section 63(1) and ordered that the 165,616 votes removed from that of Abba Yuauf, be returned to him, as the ballot papers in question were in order.

Justice Okoro observed that the lower court was wrong to deduct Abba Yusuf’s vote on account of alleged unlawful ballot papers noting that Section 71 of the Electoral Act provides that every result, or forms completed in an election should be stamped, and counter-signed by relevant officers of the presiding officers, to the exclusion of a ballot paper.

He said a ballot paper which does not bear stamp or mark is not altogether invalid so long as it carries the logo of the Nigerian map on it.

Okoro further held that before a ballot paper can be rejected, it must be proved that it was not the ones furnished to the presiding officers by INEC.

The panel therefore ordered that all the ballot papers in dispute are be restored to the appellants as there is no evidence the governor influenced the alleged non-signing of ballot papers.

On the issue of Yusuf’s membership and sponsorship, the aoex court held that the lower courts was incorrect to assume jurisdiction on the governors’ membership of his political party being a pre-election matter.

The panel held that Yusuf was duly sponsored by his party because party membership remained an internal affair of his party, as It is not within the right of the APC to challenge the membership of Yusuf having been sponsored by his party.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced the NNPP candidate winner with 1,019,602 votes while Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress polled 890,705 votes.

Yusuf was sacked by the Kano governorship tribunal after 165,616 unsigned ballot papers were deducted from his votes in the state’s March 18 governorship election.