Appeal Court blames ‘clerical error’ for conflicting Kano judgement, as Odinkalu doubles down on ‘crooked judiciary’

Court of Appeal in Abuja has blamed what it called ‘clerical error’ for the conflict in its judgement delivered, last Friday, in upholding the ruling of the state Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had sacked Governor Kabir Yusuf from office.

The appellant court, had last Friday, November 17, upheld the decision of the Kano Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had earlier invalidated the election of Governor Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the March 18, 2023 governorship election following the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Yusuf Gawuna.

The Tribunal had invalidated 165,663 votes cast for Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) because they lacked the necessary signatures or stamps from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which conducted the election.

This action reduced the governor’s votes to 853,939 while his APC rival, Nasir Ganuwa, retained 890,705 votes.

Governor Yusuf while disagreeing with the tribunal’s decision, calling it ‘unfair and a miscarriage of justice,’ headed for the Appeal Court in Abuja to challenge the judgement, as his lawyer sought the tribunal’s judgment to be overturned.

However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, in its ruling, Friday, nullified Yusuf’s election in a unanimous ruling by the three-man panel on the ground that he was not a valid candidate in the March 18 gubernatorial election.

The court stated that evidence presented by parties convincingly established that Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP at the time of the election, as it held that this made the appellant ineligible to contest the governorship election under the 1999 Constitution as amended, since he was not validly sponsored by the NNPP.

In its judgement, Chairman of the three-man Appeal Court panel, Moore Adumein, therefore, upheld the ruling of the tribunal.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a certified true copy (CTC) of the Friday’s judgement emerged showing the conflicting positions of the judges in relation to the final judgement read out in court to lawyers and interested parties to the suit.

In the CTC, duly signed by the three justices, the appellate court, in one instance, declared: “I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1st respondent (APC) and against the appellant (Governor Abba Yusuf)”, but went further to contradict itself in another sentence.

Delivered by Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumein, in one of the paragraphs on page 68 revealed thus; “I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favor of the 1st respondent and against the appellant.”

“In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favor of the appellant and against the 1st respondent.

“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed”.

In the judgment, the 1st respondent is the All Progressives Congress (APC) alongside the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the NNPP were the 2nd and 3rd respondents. While the appellant in the appeal is Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.

The judgment reads in parts; the judgment of the tribunal in Petition No.: EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between: AL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) v. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION & 2 ORS. Delivered on the 20th day of September, 2023 is hereby set aside.

“The sum of N1,000,000.00 (one million naira only) is hereby awarded as costs in favour of the appellant and against the 1st respondent.”

While the last three conclusions of the judge were considered to mean that the tribunal judgment sacking Governor Yusuf had been set aside and thus restoring his mandate, the first conclusion that resolved the issues in favour of APC meant that the decision of the tribunal was affirmed.

More confusing, in the consenting judgment delivered by Justice Bitrus G. Sanga on Page 69, the judge held that “My brother in the leading judgment considered the pleadings of the parties, the evidence adduced in support thereof together with statutory and judicial authorities cited, quoted and relied upon before reaching the inevitable decision that this appeal is bereft of merit.

“I agree with and adopt as mine the finding and conclusion reached by my learned brother and also dismiss this appeal and affirm the decision by the trial Tribunal in its judgment delivered on 20/9/2023 in Petition No. EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023.”

In addition, third justice on the panel, Justice Lateef Ganiyu in his consenting judgment held on Page 72 that “In the circumstance, I am of solemn view that this Appeal is liable to be and is hereby dismissed and I abide with the consequential order as to cost.”

Now reacting to the conflict of positions in the judgement, the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Mr Umar Mohammed Bangari has declared that the judgment body ‘was a clerical error that did not in any way invalidate or change the findings and conclusion of the Court.’

The Chief Registrar gave assurance that the clerical error would be rectified once parties in the matter file formal application to that effect.

He drew the attention of the media to Order 23 Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal HandBook which empowers the court to correct any clerical error once detected by the court or any of the parties in the matter.

Bangari however insisted that contrary to insinuations, the judgment of the court remains valid.

“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 error and would be done as appropriate.

He added that there has been misgivings and series’ of interpretations into the judgment which upheld the judgment of Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that invalidated the election of Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial poll.

Meanwhile, doubling down on his earlier criticism of the appellant court over its recent judgements on election matters, Law professor and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has insisted that he stands by his words as he called the Nigerian judiciary ‘crooked,’

Odinkalu while featuring on Channels Television programme, Wednesday, doubled down on his earlier criticism of the judiciary as he refused to back down, insisting he was not misquoted.

It would be recalled that while earlier reacting to the conflicting Kano governorship judgements which both appear to uphold and dismiss Governor Yusuf’s appeal, via his X handle, Odinkalu had expressed alarm over the court’s contradictory decision, questioning the integrity of the Nigerian judicial system.

“When we say the judiciary in Nigeria is crooked, people wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in the Kano governorship case resolved all the issues ‘in favour of the appellant & against the 1st Respondent.’ Yet it found the appeal lacking in merit & liable to be dismissed. Explain!” Odinkalu stated on X (formerly Twitter).

On the directive to lawyers to return copies of the earlier issued judgement sheet, Odinkalu said the action falls outside the scope of the Slip Rule, suggesting that the court is attempting to rewrite the judgment after the fact.

“This is Judicial Corruption on the face of the record,” Odinkalu declared.

However, on Wednesday, Odinkalu restated his position on the ‘crooked’ judiciary, when he said on television: “I was not misquoted. I said so with my full chest. We are talking about the second highest court in the land, not the customary courts, nor any lower court. I am worried that we, as a people have lost all sense of indignation, to the point we are making excuses and watering down issues like this.

“It is dangerous to society and I’m telling you that I absolutely own that statement. I was not misquoted.

“We may disagree as to the scale, but I firmly hold the view that the Nigerian judiciary is systemically crooked and even much more.”