Akin Akinola
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the victory of Abba Yusuf of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) as the duly elected governor of Kano State.
TheHintsNews reports that Yusuf had lost the legal battle challenging his victory at both the Tribunal and Court of Appeal before the Supreme court affirmed his victory.
However, Justice John Okoro who read the lead judgment held that the lower court was wrong in its judgment to have deducted 165,616 votes from the vote secured by the governor
The respondents claim that the 165,616 ballot papers were not from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), that allegation was not proven
By virtue of Section 63(1) of the Electoral Act before a ballot paper Could be declared invalid, it must be proven that it was not given to the presiding officer.
The ballot papers in question were both signed and stamped, the only feature left out was the date.
The judge, therefore, ruled that 165,616 should be added to the votes secured by Abba Yusuf.
Justice Okoro urges justices, particularly those of the Appeal Court to be “meticulous in doing their job” to avoid the kind of “mess” that the Kano matter was.
