The Kano State Governorship legal struggle saw six hours of intense legal fireworks before the Supreme Court in Abuja on Thursday reserved its decision.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), together with their respective governorship candidates Kabir Yusuf and Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, are at the center of the legal dispute.
Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN requested that the Supreme Court strike aside the Tribunal’s and Appeal Court’s rulings at the hearing on Thursday.
Olanipekun explicitly begged the five-member panel of the Apex Court, presided over by Justice John Inyang Okoro, to decide whether or not the INEC rules could be used as grounds to void the election victory of a candidate who won by a margin greater than 100,000.
The senior attorney contended that this is the first instance in electoral jurisprudence history of an election being declared void due to the absence of a signature or stamp on the back of the ballot papers.
According to him, INEC’s instructions do not call for the courts to declare an election invalid because the organization allegedly neglected to stamp the back of ballots.
The legal team representing the governor argued that the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to consider the matter because it concerned its client’s membership in the NNPP, which is a pre-election subject.
“We implore your lordships to overturn the lower courts’ judgment, as it is incredibly unfair to the appellant,” Olanipekun stated.
Because INEC representatives issued the ballots, they were legitimate.
However, Chief Akin Olujimi, the attorney for the All Progressives Congress (APC), countered that the Electoral Act requires INEC presiding officers to sign ballot papers on the back after the poll is over in order to make them legitimate and legal.
According to Olujinmi, the tribunal’s decision to nullify the election in which the ballots were utilized was based solely on the fact that the ballot papers were not dated or signed on the back.
According to him, there are obvious election anomalies on the contested ballots.
Regarding party membership, Olujinmi contended that Abba Yusuf’s name was missing from the NNPP membership file.
Legal representative for INEC Olanipekun’s views were endorsed by Nigeria’s Senior Advocate, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud.
He argued that there were errors in the lower courts’ rulings.
Mahmoud claimed that, in violation of the Electoral Act, the testimony of a subpoenaed witness (PW32), on which the tribunal had relied to dismiss Abba Yusuf, had not been front-loaded with the petition to the tribunal.
Mahmoud asserted, “They were our ballot papers issued by INEC,” and that it was the responsibility of the party agents, not the voter, to verify whether the ballots were signed or not.
According to him, INEC claims that by reviewing every ballot paper in their chambers rather than in public, the tribunal went well beyond its authority.
Mahmoud argued that party membership is obviously an internal matter for a political party, and that Abba Yusuf’s name was forwarded to INEC prior to the election, even though his party membership card was tendered in evidence at the tribunal. The NNPP’s counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, stated that ballots were actually cast at the polling places, but that the APC’s legal team failed to identify the specific polling places at issue in accordance with the court’s rules. Awomolo asserted that unsigned ballots should not have an impact on the legitimacy of an election, and that the election is the people’s decision.
Not a single witness informed the Tribunal that the ballot papers were not stamped, the NNPP attorney continued.
He pleaded with the Supreme Court to uphold Abba Yusuf’s election and return the 165,165 ballots that had been canceled.
Justice Okoro heard arguments from the parties and decided not to rule on the governor’s appeal.
Yusuf’s election was declared void by the tribunal in September, claiming more than 160,000 votes that were not legal since their ballots had missing signatures and stamps.
Alleging electoral malfeasance, the APC had contested the election results in front of the Tribunal.
However, Yusuf filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal against the tribunal’s ruling.
However, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate’s appeal against the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal’s ruling, which proclaimed All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna the victor of the state’s March 18 governorship election, was denied by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.