The fate of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and his Bauchi counterpart, Bala Muhammad, will be decided today as the Appeal Court delivers its judgment on the appeals arising from the election petitions tribunals.
In Kano state, the court will decide on the appeals filed by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, his political party, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The appeals challenge the decision of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that removed Yusuf from office.
According to a hearing notice seen by the Daily Trust, the appellate court informed the parties on Thursday about the date for the judgment.
Recall that the Governor was sacked on September 20 by a three-man panel of judges led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay. The panel declared 165,663 of the Governor’s votes invalid because they were not signed or stamped by the INEC. This reduced the Governor’s votes to 853,939, while those of his APC rival, Nasir Gawuna, remained at 890,705.
Governor Yusuf rejected the tribunal’s verdict, describing it as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice”, and headed to the appeal court.
At the appeal court, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), counsel for Yusuf, asked to set aside the tribunal’s judgment. He argued that the tribunal had erred by annulling an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers, which had never happened in history. He also stated that it was the first time a political party had filed a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition, and the candidate was declared the winner of the polls.
However, Akin Olujimi (SAN), counsel for APC, countered, saying the Appeal Court clearly stated that the non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral malpractice.
The appellate court reserved judgment after the hearing.
In Bauchi State, the APC and its governorship candidate, former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, had challenged the judgment of the election petition tribunal, which upheld the re-election of Bala Muhammad of the PDP.