In a unanimous ruling on Friday, a five-judge panel of the highest court overturned the concurrent rulings of the Court of Appeal in Abuja and the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which had dismissed Governor Yusuf and named All Progressive Congress, APC, candidate Nasiru Gawuna as the victor of the governorship contest.
The Supreme Court ruled in the main decision, delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, that the two lower courts had improperly subtracted legitimate votes that the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, had given to Governor Yusuf.
It concluded that the 165,663 votes that were taken away from Yusuf and the NNPP due to the ballots’ lack of a signature, seal, or date were legitimate.
Contrary to the lower courts’ rulings, the court determined that 146, 292 ballots had been verified as signed and stamped; the only difference was that they lacked a date.
It concluded that ballot papers bearing the official mark and properly supplied by INEC were not entirely invalid under section 63(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
Furthermore, the court determined that there was no proof governor Yusuf had any influence over the ballot papers’ not to be signed.
Furthermore, the court criticized the lower courts for declaring Yusuf’s election invalid on the grounds that he wasn’t a NNPP member.
It ruled that a political party’s internal operations encompassed the sponsorship of a candidate in an election.
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