The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved judgment in the appeal by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State challenging the ruling of the Appeal Court that sacked him from office.
The Justice Inyang Okoro-led five-member panel of judges reserved their decision after hearing closing arguments from both parties.
Yusuf and the New Nigeria People Party had filed an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s November 17 ruling, which declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the March 26, 2023 governorship poll.
Yusuf, whose sacking by the electoral tribunal was upheld by the Court of Appeal, vowed to reclaim his mandate at the Supreme Court.
The appeal court sitting in Abuja upheld the ruling of the tribunal that sacked Yusuf and declared Gawuna of APC as the winner of the March 18 election.
The Tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Osadebay had nullified the election of Yusuf by declaring 165, 663 of his votes were invalid.
The tribunal held that the ballot papers were not signed nor stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Displeased by the tribunal verdict, Yusuf appealed against the judgment.
However, at the proceeding on Thursday, Yusuf’s counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), urged the court to set aside the decision of the appeal court and tribunal.
He asked the apex court to determine whether or not, the guidelines of INEC would be a basis for nullifying the election victory of his candidate who won the election by a margin of over 100,000.
Olanipekun argued that this is the first time in the annals of electoral jurisprudence that an election was nullified on the grounds that ballot papers were not signed or stamped at the back.
He said INEC guidelines do not envisage that the courts would nullify an election on the basis of INEC purportedly failing to stamp ballot papers on the back.
The lawyer also faulted the decision of the appeal court on its verdict on Abba’s membership of the NNPP.
