‘Error In CTC’: NNPP Asks Supreme Court To Reverse Kano Gov’s Sacking

The Court of Appeal had on Wednesday said the discrepancy between what was read out in the open court and the contents of the judgment’s CTC was a clerical error.

“What happened in the part of the judgment is just a mere clerical error that ought not to draw any issue. The court is empowered to correct such clerical errors and would be done as appropriate,” the court’s Chief Registrar, Umar Bangari, said in a statement on Wednesday, adding “The clerical error would be rectified once parties in the matter file formal application to that effect.”

But the NNPP legal team led by Adegboyega Awomolo SAN is challenging the entire judgement of the tribunal except page 67 of the duly certified true copy, which, according to them, favoured Abba Yusuf.

it was reported that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had dismissed the appeal filed by Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), 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.

The Independent National Electronic Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced Yusuf as the winner of the poll, saying he garnered 1,019,602 votes to defeat Gawuna who got 890,705 of the votes cast.

The Tribunal, agreeing with the APC, nullified Yusuf’s election, adding that over 160,000 ballot papers “were not signed or stamped by INEC”.

Yusuf’s votes were subsequently reduced to 853,939 while Ganuwa’s 890,705 votes were not affected.

The three-man panel of the Tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023, after deducting 165,663 of his votes.

The governor then filed an appeal before the appellate court.

In its judgment on Friday, the three-man panel of the appellate court held that the governor to his own detriment did not submit his NNPP membership register or even tendered his statement on oath regarding his membership of the party to INEC ahead of the poll.

The appeal court said the 1999 Constitution made it mandatory for political parties to have a membership register and submit the same to INEC and the Tribunal when needed.

The appeal court held that even though membership of a political party is an internal affair, a political party cannot be permitted to circumvent or breach the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

“All issues in this appeal are dismissed and the judgment of the Tribunal is affirmed,” the court held.

Days after the judgment, the Kano government released what it purported to be portions of the CTC of the judgement showing that Abba Yusuf’s election was purportedly upheld.

Sustaining that line of argument, the NNPP, in their appeal to the Supreme Court, asked the apex court to give effect to that portion of the CTC judgement and discountenance the remaining body of the appeal court judgement.

Among his ten grounds of appeal, Awomolo argued that the Court of Appeal erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice when it delved into the internal affairs of the NNPP regarding sponsorship of its candidate which it believes is a pre-election matter.

He therefore urged the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal while upholding the portion that set aside the judgement of the Tribunal.

The reliefs read, “An order allowing the appeal and setting aside the Judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on 17th November, 2023.

“An order upholding the portion of the judgement of the court of appeal setting aside the judgement of the trial Tribunal in Petition No: EPT/RV/GOV/11/2023 and making the order as to costs in favour of the appellants.”