Kano State Commissioner of Justice, Haruna Dederi said the Court of Appeal’s explaination of the descrepancy in it’s judgement on the Kano governorship election dispute is “outrageously scandalous.”
The Nigerian political and judicial scene was rattled Wednesday when it emerged that the judgement read out by the Court of Appeal was different from what is contained in the Certified True Copy (CTC).
The court had sacked Governor Abba Yusuf and declared the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Nasiru Gawuna as the winner of the March poll. But a CTC of the judgment emerged on Wednesday, affirming Yusuf’s victory in the exercise.
The Court of Appeal registerar said it was a typographical error.
“What is a typographical error? Does it affect one word? Does it affect two words? Does it affect three words? “How can a typographical error affect whole paragraphs? This is something that cannot be accepted by any discernible mind as I have said,” Mr. said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“This is something that is outrageously scandalous and it cannot be accepted. We are not satisfied.”
The Commissioner who said the controversy surrounding the judgment “has now been shifted to the Supreme Court,” believes “it would be resolved there”.
Despite the Appeal Court’s clarification, he maintained that the trending copy of the CTC is “the only version we have as the judgment of the Court of Appeal.”
“There is no corrected version,” he argued on the breakfast show, insisting that the claims of typo error about the CTC “is not tenable. It cannot be accepted”.
Governor Yusuf and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have already headed to the Supreme Court to challenge the verdict and are hopeful of getting justice.
The party challenged “the entire judgment of the Court of Appeal save and except the conclusion and orders at page 67 of the duly Certified True Copy, CTC including the order as to cost favourable to the appellant”.
The court judgement has already heightened tensions in the North-West state. There were protests along the Dan Agundi area of the state on Wednesday. Some of the protesters said they were ready to die as they demanded justice. But police authorities in the state have vowed to clamp down on such demonstrations.
