The Supreme Court on Friday reinstated Yusuf Abba as the Governor of Kano State, voiding the judgement of the lower courts, which sacked him from office.
In the judgement delivered by Justice John Okoro of the Supreme Court, the court ordered that all the ballot papers that were initially deducted from Abba’s votes by the tribunal be restored to him.
According to him, this was because the deducted ballot papers contained the logo of INEC and the coat of arms as prescribed by the provisions of the Electoral Act.
The judge also ruled that non-party members cannot interfere in issues bordering on party membership as it is an internal affair of the party.
News About Nigeria recalls that in its judgement, the tribunal sacked Governor Abba of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) on the grounds that he won the election because of 165,663 invalid ballot papers that were added to his votes.
The court therefore declared 165,663 of his votes invalid because the ballot papers were neither stamped nor signed.
Dissatisfied with the judgement of the tribunal, the embattled governor approached the appeal court for redress.
However, the appeal court, in its judgement, upheld the tribunal’s decision of sacking the governor.
The appellate court ruled that Abba was not qualified to be on the ballot in the first place because he was not properly sponsored by the NNPP.
The appellate court therefore declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the election.
Still not satisfied with the judgement of the appellate court, Abba approached the Supreme Court where he reclaimed his mandate.
