Supreme Court reverses sack of Kano Governor, Yusuf

The Supreme Court has restored Gov. Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party ( NNPP) as the duly elected governor of Kano State.
The apex court on Friday in a unanimous decision by a five member panel of justices, vacated the judgements of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Abuja which sacked Gov. Yusuf and declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressive Congress ( APC) as the winner of the March, 18, 2023 Governorship election.
In the lead judgement delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, the Supreme Court held that the two lower courts wrongly deducted valid votes that were credited to Gov. Yusuf by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC).
It held that 165,668 votes that were deducted from Yusuf and the NNPP on the premise that the ballot papers were not signed, stamped or dated were valid.
The court also held that contrary to the positions of the lower courts, a total of 146,292 of the ballot papers were confirmed to have been signed only that it did not contain any date. It held that by section 63(1) of the electoral act 2022, ballot papers which bore the official mark and were duly signed by INEC were not totally invalid.
Besides, the Court held that there was no evidence that Gov. Yusuf influenced the non signing of the ballot papers.
Moreso, the court faulted the lower courts decision to nullify Yusuf election on the premise that he was not a member of NNPP.