The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Governor Abba Yusuf of New Nigeria Peoples party, NNPP, as the validly elected governor of Kano State.
The apex court set aside the judgements of Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal, which declared APC candidate Nasiru Gawuna as the winner.
Delivering the judgement on Friday, the chairman of the panel, Justice John Okoro, returned Mr Yusuf’s 165,616 votes, which the lower tribunal invalidated and deducted from the votes cast in his favour.
“There is no proof that the said ballot papers were not the one used at the election. Thus the decision of the Court of Appeal affirming the decision of the tribunal ought to be set aside,” Mr Okoro said.
“What is the effect of a ballot paper not having the marks by the Electoral commission? A ballot paper that does not bear INEC mark is not invalid by all purposes.”
The apex court said it for a ballot paper to be invalid, it must be proved that it was not the one deployed for the conduct of the election.
“Finally, the lower court wrongly misconstrued its evaluation of the ballot papers. This amounts to perversion. Accordingly, all the ballot papers are restored to Governor Yusuf,” Mr Okoro said.
