The Supreme Court has set aside the judgement of an Abuja court of Appeal which nullified the election of Governor Kabir Yusuf of Kano State.

The Court has set aside the lower courts’ decisions sacking the Kano state Governor, Yusuff Abba.

The tribunal had set aside Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party victory after declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid. The tribunal held that the deducted votes were from ballot papers that were neither stamped nor signed.

He then approached the appeal court for redress. The appeal court upheld the tribunal’s decision and faulted the lower court for not disqualifying the governor.

The appellate court said the governor was not properly sponsored by the New Nigeria Peoples Party, thus violating the provisions of Section 177 (c) of the constitution.

The court, however, declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress winner of the election.

At the Supreme Court, Justice John Okoro ordered that all the ballot papers from which the appellant votes were deducted should be restored to the governor.

He said the said paper contains the logo of INEC and the coat of arms as prescribed by the provisions of the Electoral Act.

He also held that the issue of party membership is an internal affair of the party.

On the second issue, the Supreme Court again faulted the Court of Appeal for holding that Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP as of the time he contested the election, adding that the issue of nomination and sponsorship is a pre-election matter and outside the jurisdiction of the court.

Justice Okoro observed that contrary to the appellate court, the tribunal never held that Yusuf was not qualified to contest the poll but that his name was not in the NNPP’s membership register submitted to INEC.

The apex court subsequently set aside the judgment of the two lower courts for being perverse and restored the electoral victory of Abba Yusuf.