The Court of Appeal has fixed judgment in Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf’s appeal against the ruling of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, for Friday.
ASHENEWS reports that on September 20, 2023, a three-man panel of judges, led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay, invalidated 165,663 of Yusuf’s votes as they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The tribunal had reduced the governor’s votes to 853,939, while Nasiru Ganuwa’s 890,705 votes remained unchanged.
After the tribunal’s judgement, Yusuf had rejected the tribunal verdict, and approached the Appeal court.
During the court proceedings, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria representing the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) candidate, Wole Olanipekun, requested that the tribunal’s decision be overturned.
He objected to the tribunal’s decision to nullify the election due to unsigned ballot papers, stating that this was unprecedented in history.
Olanipekun also argued that the tribunal made a mistake by allowing a political party to file a petition without including its candidate as a party.
However, APC’s counsel, Akin Olujimi, SAN, disagreed with Olanipekun’s arguments, citing the Appeal Court’s ruling that unsigned ballots constituted 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.
