BREAKING: Supreme Court Reverses Kano Governor Abba Yusuf’s Sacking

The Supreme Court has reversed the sacking of Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).

The apex court’s presiding justice, Inyang Okoro, restored all the votes deducted from him, saying the ballot papers used in the election were in order.

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 165,000 unsigned ballot papers were deducted from his votes in the state’s March 18 governorship election.

The APC had challenged the election outcome at the tribunal, alleging electoral malpractice.

Yusuf, however, appealed the tribunal’s decision to the Court of Appeal.

But the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja dismissed the appeal filed by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate against the judgment of the tribunal declaring the All Progressive Congress (APC) flagbearer, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the state’s governorship poll held on March 18.

A discrepancy between the initial judgment and the certified true copy added another layer of complexity to the matter, prompting Yusuf to approach the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the lower courts’ decisions.

The Court of Appeal acknowledged a clerical error in the CTC of its judgment and promised to make corrections.

But Wole Olanipekun appealed to the Supreme Court, urging the court to set aside the decision of the appeal court and tribunal.

On Thursday, Olanipekun asked the five-man apex court panel to determine whether or not the guidelines of INEC will be a basis for nullifying the election victory of his candidate who won the election by a margin of over 100,000.

Olanipekun argued that it was the first time in the annals of electoral jurisprudence where an election was nullified on the grounds that ballot papers were not signed or stamped at the back.

He said INEC guidelines do not envisage that the courts would nullify an election on the basis of INEC purportedly failing to stamp ballot papers on the back.

The governor’s legal team also maintained that its client’s membership of the NNPP is a pre-election matter and authentic and the appellate court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter

“The judgment of the lower courts is very unfair to the appellant and we urge your lordships to overturn it,” Olanipekun said.

“I have one question for you. At both courts, was the issue of the source of ballot papers determined or raised at all?”, Okoro asked.

“Nobody raised the legality or illegality of the ballots. They tendered the ballot from the bar. Nobody spoke to it,” Olanipekun replied.

“What I want to find out is if the ballots were illegal,” Okoro asked again.

“They were not illegal,” Olanipekun replied, saying the ballot papers were issued by INEC officials.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi, maintained that the Electoral Act mandates INEC presiding officers to sign the back of ballot papers after the conclusion of the election.

The apex court then asked Olujimi what the findings of the tribunal on the ballots were.

Olujinmi said the findings of the tribunal were simply that the ballot papers were not signed at the back, and not dated.

On the issue of party membership, Olujinmi argued that the NNPP membership register did not show the name of Abba Yusuf on it.

However, the counsel for INEC, A.B Mahmoud, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, supported the arguments of Governor Yusuf’s lawyer, saying the decisions of the lower courts were flawed.

Mahmoud said the testimony of a subpoenaed witness (PW32) which the tribunal relied on in sacking Governor Yusuf were not frontloaded along with the petition at the tribunal, contrary to the Electoral Act.

“Those ballot papers, do they belong to you? Yes, they were our ballot papers issued by INEC,” Mahmoud replied, saying it was not the duty of voters to check if ballot papers were signed or not but that of the party agents.

He said INEC’s contention is that the tribunal went far beyond its powers in vetting each of the ballot papers in their chambers and not in open court.

According to Mahmoud, membership of the party is an internal affair of the political party and Yusuf’s name was forwarded to INEC prior to the election while his party membership card was tendered in evidence at the tribunal.

Counsel for the NNPP, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo , said ballot papers were actually cast at the polling units but the APC legal team did not specify the polling units affected at the Tribunal in line with rules of court.

Justice Okoro then asked who should be blamed if ballot papers issued by INEC are not stamped by its officials.

“Who should suffer? Is it the guy that voted, INEC or the person who voted for?” Okoro asked.

Responding, Awomolo said not signing ballot papers ought not to affect the validity of an election.

“My submission is that the election is the decision of the people,” Awomolo said, insisting that the tribunal was wrong to recount the ballots in its chambers.

The NNPP counsel added that not a single witness told the tribunal that ballot papers were not stamped.

He urged the apex court to restore the 165,165 cancelled votes of Abba Yusuf and affirm his election.

Again, Olujimi rose up and said the tribunal cross checked the disputed ballot papers based on evidence argued upon in open court.

In its judgment on Friday, Justice Okoro observed that the lower court was wrong to deduct Abba Yusuf’s vote on account of alleged unlawful ballot papers.

He found 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 bare stamp or mark is not altogether invalid so long as it carries the Nigerian map on it.

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

“The decision of the lower courts regarding unsigned ballot papers ought to be set aside,” Okoro said, adding that all those ballot papers in dispute are hereby restored to the appellants because there is no evidence the governor influenced the alleged non-signing of ballot papers.

Okoro also said the lower courts was incorrect to assume jurisdiction on the governors’ membership of his political party being a pre-election matter.

Subsequently, Okoro said Yusuf was duly sponsored by his party because party membership remained an internal affair of his party.

The Tribunal never found that Yusuf was not a member of the party but erroneously chose to remove him.

“It is not within the right of the APC to challenge the membership of Yusuf having been sponsored by his party,” Justice Okoro said while returning Yusuf as governor.