The Supreme Court has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to replace Ibrahim Shekarau with Rufai Hanga as the Kano Central senatorial candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP.
Delivering judgment on an appeal filed before it by INEC, Justice Uwani Aba-Aji upheld the judgements of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal both in Abuja which had upheld the candidature of Mr Hanga as the standard-bearer NNPP.
The five-man panel said INEC’s appeal lacked merit and substance, and therefore dismissed the appeal in its entirety.
In the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, INEC however declared Mr Shekarau winner despite the judgement of the Court of Appeal directing INEC to recognise Mr Hanga as candidate.
The returning officer for the election, Tijjani Darma, said Mr Shekarau scored 456,787 votes, while the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Abdulkarim Abdulsalam, polled 168,677 votes to become the distant second.
He added that PDP’s Laila Buhari polled 55,237 votes to emerge third in the race.
Upon the declaration of Mr Shekarau as the winner, NNPP agent, Shehu Usman, rejected the declaration, citing the judgements of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, which ordered INEC to substitute Mr Shekarau’s with Mr Hanga.
