The Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf and the founder of New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam have reacted to the victory given to the governor at the Supreme Court on Friday.
Reacting to his victory on his X account, Govenor Yusuf wrote; “Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. – AKY.”
In his own reaction, Dr. Aniebonam lauded the Supreme Court for reaffirming the position of the people of Kano State.
A five-man panel of Justices of the highest court in the land vacated the cuncurrent judgements of the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Abuja which sacked Governor Yusuf. The apex court affirmed that Yusuf who contested on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) was duly elected as governor of Kano State.
Nasiru Gawuna, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had challenged Yusuf’s victory in the March governorship election.
Reading the lead judgement, Justice John Okoro held that the lower court was wrong in its judgment to have deducted 165,616 votes from the votes secured by Governor Yusuf.
Justice Okoro also held that the issue of Governor Yusuf’s membership was a pre-election matter.
He said the finding that by the virtue of Section 177(c) of the Nigerian Constitution and Section 134(1) of the Electoral Act, Governor Yusuf was not sponsored by the NNPP, was not a finding of the electoral tribunal but a mere observation that his name was not contained in the membership list.
“This court has consistently maintained that the issue of nomination or sponsorship of a candidate for an election is completely an exclusive prerogative of the political party,” he stated.