INEC Chairman, Prof Yakubu
Kano governorship tribunal ruling: INEC denies withdrawing appeal
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has distanced itself from a viral media report which claims it had withdrawn its appeal against the recent judgement passed by the Kano Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had sacked the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate, Governor Abba Yusuf from office.
Three-member panel of justices of the Tribunal sitting in Kano has declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna as winner.
The tribunal ruled that incumbent governor, Abba Kabiru Yusuf was not duly elected in the March 18 governorship election conducted in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as according to the justices, most of the ballot papers which returned Yusuf as winner were not stamped and signed by the commission.
Delivering its virtual judgement, Wednesday, September 20, the panel led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay also ordered withdrawal of certificate of return which INEC presented to Governor Yusuf and directed a new certificate to be issued to Gawuna.
The tribunal justices commenced proceedings virtually a few minutes before 10:00a.m transmitting at Miller Road venue of the tribunal.
The court invalidated Yusuf’s election as Kano State governor after deducting 165,663 votes from Gov Yusuf’s total which it said were invalid votes, stating that the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.
Yusuf is the only New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) governor in the country.
Meanwhile, all three grounds of the APC candidate’s petition were resolved in favour of APC, including; Governor Yusuf’s membership of NNPP; non compliance with the Electoral Act and total lawful votes (Invalid ballot papers used in the election).
Reacting, the NNPP has rejected the judgement, just as it said it will challenge it at the Appeal Court.
However, reports had recently emerged from the office of the Legal Officer of INEC claiming that the commission has withdrawn its appeal against the Kano tribunal judgement.
The reports, which cited a letter dated October 6 and purportedly signed by Suleiman Alkali, the head of the commission’s legal department in Kano, had stated that INEC was retracting its appeal on the grounds of having no reason to contest the tribunal’s decision.
Reacting, however, Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, refuted the claims in the media and affirmed INEC’s commitment to the legal process in the Kano governorship election petition case.
“The attention of the Commission has been drawn to media reports based on a letter written by the Legal Officer of our Kano State office indicating that the Commission had withdrawn from the appeal process in the ongoing Kano Governorship election petition case.
“We wish to state categorically that the letter was not authorised. It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded.
“The public is therefore advised to discountenance the insinuation that the Commission has withdrawn from the case or even worse abandoned the appeal.
“We wish to state categorically that where litigants join INEC in a case, the Commission is under obligation to respond accordingly. We have therefore instructed our lawyers to proceed in line with extant policy of the Commission. The policy has not changed,” a statement by Olumekun read.
