Confusion over conflicting Appeal Court ruling in Kano, as CTC of judgement emerges

Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement delivered by the three-member panel of justices of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja have emerged showing conflicting positions of judges which had reportedly sacked Governor Kabir Yusuf from office.

This is also as the court requested lawyers representing both appellant and respondents to return copies of the judgement sheets in their possession.

It would be recalled that 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.

At the appellant court, Mr. Olanipekun argued against the tribunal’s decision regarding the unsigned ballot papers, stating it was unprecedented for an election to be annulled solely due to the lack of signatures on the back of ballot papers, as he further highlighted this as the first instance where a political party filed a case without involving its candidate in the petition, and yet, the candidate was declared the winner.

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.

However, the Kano Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Haruna Isa-Dederi, Tuesday, opened a can of confusion, while addressing newsmen in the state, by disclosing that a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Court of Appeal judgment on State Governorship Election had instead affirmed the victory of Governor Yusuf as the duly elected governor.

Isa-Dederi said in the fresh revelation as contained in the written judgment, the Court of Appeal set aside the judgment of the Kano election petition tribunal for lacking in merit.

“The evidence contained in page 67 of the Certified True Copy of the Appeal Court judgment released on Tuesday and signed by Registrar Jameel Ibrahim Umar, the appellate court upheld the victory of Abba Kabiru Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as duly elected Governor of Kano state,” he said.

According to the commissioner, the court stated in the CTC the judgement read that: “The judgment of the Tribunal in Petition No: PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between All Progressives Congress (APC) Vs Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) & 2 Others, delivered on the 20th day of September 2023, is hereby set aside.

“The court also awarded a N1 cost against the APC, deepening the confusion in the state and shock for APC and its governorship candidate, Nasir Yusuf Gawuna.”

Dederi noted that page 67 of the certified copy of the judgment clearly indicated that the tribunal’s ruling that sacked Yusuf was set aside, as he further averred that ‘contrary to what the Judges read to the public in the court room on the November 17, the written evidence has vindicated Yusuf as the legitimate governor of Kano state.’

According to the attorney general, ‘this latest discovery will strengthen their position at the Supreme Court.’

A CTC of the Friday’s judgement showed 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.”

Reacting to the development, rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana SAN, described it as scandalous to the integrity of the judiciary, just as he faulted the decision of the court to punish millions of voters for the mistake committed by INEC officials.

“You will be surprised if I show you the judgement of Kano. That one was almost scandalous. To my utter dismay, the majority judgement upheld the appeal, set aside the judgement of the lower court, and awarded cost in favour of the governor that was removed by the lower tribunal, contrary to the impression that was given out there.

“The main judgement of the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the judgement of the lower court is wrong and has set it aside in writing and granted all the relief sought by Governor Abba.

“So many contradictions that the court can no longer explain”, Falana added.

Meanwhile, the court has requested lawyers to return copies of the judgement sheet obtained from Friday’s ruling, as it seeks to effect correction to it to reflect its final position on the matter.

Former media aide to immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari and chieftain of the APC, Bashir Ahmad who confirmed this in a post via his X handle, Wednesday, maintained that the position of the justices remain unchanged, as they will declare that ‘Nasir Gawuna is the legitimate winner of the election.’

“The Court of Appeal has asked lawyers to return the copies of the Kano governorship election ruling for correction. The court will correct the obvious errors in the released judgment and stand by its Friday pronouncement that Nasir Gawuna is the legitimate winner of the election,” Bashir Ahmad said.

However, a Law professor and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, whuile reacting to the latst development, 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.

Already, Yusuf has since announced his intention to appeal the Friday’s dismissal of his election by the Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court, in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr Bature Dawakin-Tof, last Saturday, November 18.