Kano State governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf will wait a little longer to know the fate of the appeal he filed against his removal as governor-elect by Kano Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has put judgment on hold in Yusuf’s quest to quash the ruling of the three-man tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay.
The tribunal had hinged its September 20, 2023, ruling on the submission that 165,663 of the votes received by Yusuf were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission, therefore they were invalid. The governor’s votes were then reduced to 853,939 while Nasir Ganuwa’s 890,705 votes remained.
Counsel for Yusuf, Wole Olanipekun SAN, said during Monday’s hearing that the tribunal erred in its ruling, stating that it was the first time that a political party would file a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition and the candidate would declared winner of the polls.
Kicking against the ruling on ballot papers, the senior lawyer said this is the first time in the history that a tribunal will annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers.
But Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel for APC, countered him saying the Appeal Courts stated emphatically that the non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral malpractice.
He argued that INEC regulations have set out what presiding officers are to do at the point of voting, adding that the back of ballot papers must be signed and dated.
The appeal court panel subsequently reserved judgment, saying a date would be communicated to the parties.
“Judgement in this appeal is hereby reserved to a date to be communicated to the parties,” the panel held.
In a related appeal by the INEC, its Counsel, A. B Mahmoud held that the tribunal turned the election jurisprudence law upside down with its judgment.
“What the court did was outside the scope of the tribunal. The electoral Act does not permit the tribunal to embark on this scrutiny or recount.
“We want this court to correct the anomaly and set the jurisprudence right. I urge the court to allow this appeal as it is preeminently meritorious and set aside the judgment of the lower court,” he added.
