Hope Rises for Gov Yusuf as S/Court ‘Hears’ 165,000 Cancelled Votes, NNPP Membership Issue
After six hours of fierce legal fireworks, the Supreme Court on Thursday in Abuja reserved judgment in the Kano State Governorship legal battle.
At the center of the legal battle is the New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP and the All Progressives Congress APC and their governorship candidates Kabir Yusuf and Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna,
At Thursday’s proceedings, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN asked the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Appeal Court and tribunal.
Olanipekun specifically pleaded with the five-man Apex Court panel headed by Justice John Inyang Okoro to determine whether or not, the guidelines of INEC will be a basis for nullifying the election victory of a candidate who won the election by a margin of over 100,000.
The senior lawyer argued that this is the first time in the annals of electoral jurisprudence where an election was nullified on the grounds that ballot papers were not signed or stamped at the back.
He said INEC guidelines does not envisage that the courts would nullify an election on the basis of INEC purportedly failure to stamp ballot papers on the back.
The governor’s legal team maintained that its client’s membership of the NNPP is a pre-election matter and that the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
“The judgment of the lower courts is very unfair to the appellant and we urge your lordships to upturn it,” Olanipekun said.
“Nobody raised the legality or illegality of the ballots. They tendered the ballot from the bar. Nobody spoke to it,” Olanipekun replied.
“The ballot papers were legal because they were issued by INEC officials.
But in a counter argument, the All Progressives Congress (APC) counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi maintained that the Electoral Act mandates INEC presiding officers to sign the back of ballot papers after the conclusion of the election to make them legal and lawful
Olujinmi said the findings of the tribunal were simply that the ballot papers were not signed at the back and not dated and proceeded to cancel election where the ballots were used.
He said electoral irregularities are manifest on the disputed ballot papers.
On the issue of party membership, Olujinmi argued that the NNPP membership register did not show the name of Abba Yusuf on it.
Counsel for INEC Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, supported the arguments of Olanipekun.
He submitted that the decisions of the lower courts were flawed.
Mahmoud said the testimony of a subpoenaed witness(PW32) which the tribunal relied on to sack Abba Yusuf were not front loaded along with the petition at the tribunal contrary to the Electoral Act.
“They were our ballot papers issued by INEC,” Mahmoud said saying it was not the duty of a voter to check if ballot papers were signed or not but that of the party agents.
He said INEC’s contention is that the tribunal went far beyond its powers in vetting each of the ballot papers in their chambers and not in open court.
Mahmoud contended that membership of a political party is clearly an internal affairs of a political party and Abba Yusuf’s name was forwarded to INEC prior to the election while his party membership card was tendered in evidence at the tribunal.
Counsel for the NNPP, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN said ballot papers were actually cast at the polling units but the APC legal team did not specify the polling units affected at the Tribunal in line with rules of court.
Awomolo said ballot papers not signed ought not to affect the validity of an election.
“My submission is that election is the decision of the people. Tribunal was wrong to recount the ballots in its chambers.
The NNPP counsel added that not a single witness told the Tribunal that ballot papers were not stamped.
He urged the Apex Court to restore the 165,165 cancelled votes of Abba Yusuf and affirm his election.
After taking arguments of parties, Justice Okoro reserved judgment on the governor’s appeal.
The tribunal had in September nullified Yusuf’s election, citing over 160,000 invalid votes due to missing signatures and stamps on the ballot papers.
The APC had challenged the election outcome at the Tribunal, alleging electoral malpractice.
Yusuf, however, appealed the tribunal’s decision to the Court of Appeal.
But the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the appeal filed by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate against the judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which declared the All Progressive Congress (APC) flag bearer, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the state’s governorship poll held on March 18.
Meanwhile, some legal experts expressed the feeling that chances are now high that the incumbent governor Abba high tha may not lose his seat.
The optimism of Governor Yusuf retaining his mandate was reassured following the ‘drama’ that took place on Thursday in Abuja, during the hearing on the Kano gubernatorial election, by the Supreme Court.
According to a senior lawyer, who was also present at the supreme court during the hearing, the apex court basically focused on the 165,663 votes of Governor Yusuf that was cancelled by the tribunal in its judgement (on the matter); and the judgement of the Appeal Court on non-membership of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, by the Kano Governor.
The senior lawyer, who asked not to be named told Politics Digest that: “During the hearing, the apex court was informed by lawyers to Governor Abba that there is no law that empowers the tribunal to cancel the votes of a candidate, when the returning officer had already announced it. The lawyers to Governor Abba said that the tribunal committed a blunder by cancelling the governor’s votes.
“Again, the counsel also maintained that the inability of an electoral officer to sign ballot papers cannot in any way invalidate votes scored by candidates. So, as it looks, that issue of the cancelled votes will favour Governor Yusuf.
“On the NNPP party membership of Governor Yusuf, the learned justices of the apex court were informed that the issue is an internal affair of the political party.
“The counsel said that once a political party submits the name of a candidate to INEC, no one can challenge the candidate’s membership of the party that fielded him. They were of the opinion that APC has no right to pocknose into the affairs of the NNPP.
“The lawyers also tackled the Appeal Court for not hearing the appeal of Governor Yusuf, but only adopted the judgement of the tribunal, ahead of its ‘controversial’ ruling.
“During the hearing also, an INEC representative said that their ballot papers are valid, even if they are not stamped or signed by their electoral officers after an election. “
