The Court of Appeal on Wednesday released another Certified True Copy (CTC) of its ruling on the Kano State Governorship Election barely 24 hours after it brought out the first CTC which contained its Order affirming the election of Governor Kabir Yusuf and awarding N1million against the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Court of Appeal, which has continued to receive backlashes from Nigerians over the controversial orders, brought out the new certified copy – a 68-page document obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday.
In the new CTC also, the Court of Appeal in the ruling read by Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumen, said Governor Yusuf’s appeal was dismissed.
The justice said, “A person must first be a member of a political party before he can be legally or validly sponsored by that party as a candidate for a general election. Where a political party carelessly sponsors a person who is not its member as a candidate for an election, such an act of sponsorship, like a court or tribunal, which undertakes to exercise jurisdiction, which it does not have or possess, is nothing but a nullity, irrespective of whether such a person performs excellently well in the questioned election.
“The applicable legal maxim is: “Ex nihilo nihil fit” which means: “From nothing nothing comes”. In this case, the 3rd respondent shot herself in its foot by undertaking to sponsor the appellant before fishing for his membership of the party after the election.
“By way of a subtle reminder to our political actors and players, this case is a very clear example of a political party or some of its members acting with brazen, imperforate or impervious impunity, as if the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is not binding; by presenting a person as its candidate for a serious general election when, by its own member register, it is ex facie manifest that the person was not its member before the election. And the same political party, or members thereof, would wake up to accuse the Judiciary of sundry wrongdoings, including the infamous allegation of corrupt practices.
“From the facts of this case, I am tempted to think and say that within the collective conscience of the appellant and the 3rd respondent they know the truth of this matterAnd I am reminded of those indelible and evergreen words, credited to the highly revered sage Uthman Dan Fodio, that: “Conscience is like an open wound, only truth can heal it” I will say no more
“I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant. In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant
“The sum of N1,000,000.00 (one million naira only) is hereby awarded as costs in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant.”
OBSERVERSTIMES had on Tuesday reported that the Court of Appeal actually set aside the ruling of the Kano Governorship Election Tribunal which sacked Governor Kabir Yusuf and ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pay him N1million, according to the certified copy of the ruling, obtained by SaharaReporters.
According to the court document, the appeal court set aside the ruling of the election tribunal in the petition of the APC, PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between the APC and the governor.
According to the certified court document of the Court of Appeal obtained by SaharaReporters on Tuesday, Yusuf Abba Kabir is the appellant while the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) are the first, second and third respondents respectively.
The court ruling read by same Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumen, had said, “I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1 respondent and against the appellant. In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the appellant and against the 1 respondent.
“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed. The judgment of the tribunal in Petition No.: PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between: ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS APC) v. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION & 2 RS. 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 costs in favour of the appellant and against the 1st respondent.”
Yusuf, who contested on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the poll in March.
The tribunal had deducted 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s total as invalid votes, stating that the affected ballot papers were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.
The ruling came about six months after the APC candidate conceded defeat to Yusuf in the wake of INEC’s presentation of the certificate of return to the NNPP candidate.