By Ebuka Obidinma
The Supreme Court has reserved judgement on the decisions of lower courts which sacked Kano state governor, Abba Yusuf.
THE WHISTLER reports that in September 2023, the tribunal nullified Yusuf’s election, citing over 160,000 invalid votes due to missing signatures and stamps on the ballot papers.
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 Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which declared the All Progressive Congress (APC) flagbearer, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the state’s governorship poll held on March 18.
In November 2023, the Court of Appeal upheld the tribunal’s ruling and further disqualified Yusuf for failing to submit his NNPP membership register to INEC.
However, a discrepancy arose between the judgment read in court and the certified true copy (CTC) of the judgment recieved by the governor’s legal team led by Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The Court of Appeal acknowledged a clerical error in the CTC of its judgment and promised correction.
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 chaired by Justice Inyang Okoro 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 this is 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 does 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 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 judgement of the lower courts is very unfair to the appellant and we urge your lordships to upturn 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.
He said electoral irregularities are manifest on the disputed ballot papers.
On the issue of party membership, Olujinmi argued that the NNPP membership register did not show the name of Abba Yusuf on it.
Counsel for INEC, A.B Mahmoud, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, supported the arguments of Olanipekun.
He submitted that the decisions of the lower courts were flawed.
Mahmoud said the testimony of a subpoenaed witness(PW32) which the tribunal relied on to sack Abba 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 a voter 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.
Mahmoud contended that membership is clearly an internal affairs of a political party and Abba 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.
Okoro asked him what should be the effect going forward, when ballot papers that are issued by INEC are not stamped by its officials.
“Who should suffer? Is it the guy that voted, INEC or the person voted for?” Okoro asked.
Awomolo said ballot papers not signed ought not to affect the validity of an election.
“My submission is that 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 at the open court.
After hearing parties, the apex court reserved its judgement on the governor’s appeal.
