The Court of Appeal, yesterday,
said it stands by its judgment sacking Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State.
Yusuf was the candidate of the
New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, in the March 18 governorship poll in Kano
State.
The Appeal Court affirmed the
decision of Kano State Governorship Tribunal, which declared Dr. Nasiru Gawuna
of All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the poll.
The appelate court’s position
came on a day the NNPP lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court. It also appealed
to the National Judicial Council, NJC, to probe the judgment.
Efforts to get the reaction of
the NJC on the matter at press time yesterday, however, proved abortive.
But the APC has dismissed
concerns raised about the reported contradictions in the CTC, saying it was of
no issue.
This is even as protests rocked
Kano State, yesterday, following an alleged ‘error’ in the Appeal Court
judgment that sacked Governor Abba Yusuf of the state.
Police had to move in to disperse
the protesters.
Our judgement sacking Gov Yusuf subsists Appeal Court
In a bid to clear the air on the
controversy trailing the judgment it delivered on the Kano State governorship
election dispute, the Court of Appeal, yesterday, restated its order that
sacked Governor Yusuf.
The appellate court dismissed as
clerical error, a portion in the certified true copy of its judgment, which
Governor Yusuf and his party, the NNPP, claimed validated their victory in the
gubernatorial contest held on March 18.
Reacting to the development, the
appellate court, through its Chief Registrar, Mr. Umar Bangari, said the “clerical error,” did not in any way
invalidate or change the unanimous conclusion of the three-member panel of
justices that decided the appeal.
The Chief Registrar said the
clerical error would be rectified, once parties in the matter filed a formal
application to that effect.
He stressed that Order 23, Rule 4
of the Court of Appeal HandBook, empowered the court to correct any clerical
error, once detected by the court or any of the parties in the matter.
He added that contrary to insinuations
in the social media, the judgment of the court remains valid.
“What happened in the part of the
judgment is just a mere clerical error that ought not to draw any issue.
“The court is empowered to
correct such clerical error and that will be done as appropriate,” Bangari
added.
NNPP wants NJC to probe Appeal Court judgment
The NNPP, which addressed newsmen
in Abuja, yesterday, alleged that the judgment of the appellate court that
sacked its candidate and winner of the governorship election, Yusuf, was
doctored.
It alleged that because the
verdict was compromised, it led to a change of the conclusion that was
originally reached by the panel.
It appealed to the NJC to probe
the judgment delivered on its appeal by the Kano State Governorship Election
Appeal Court, noting that the CTC of the judgment showed that the NNPP
candidate, Abba Kabir Yusuf, won the election.
This, the party noted, was
contrary to the judgment read by the Justices of the Appeal Court.
Acting National Chairman of the
NNPP, Abba Ali, said: “Without prejudice, we are going to challenge the verdict
at the Supreme Court, but the NNPP is
asking the NJC to, without delay, commence investigations to unravel the
mystery behind the judgement.
“We are an interested party. We
own the platform on which Engr. Yusuf ran for the election and was
declared winner. We are calling on the
NJC, to without delay commence investigation to unravel what happened in the matter.
“Also, we are calling on eminent
members of the bench (both retired and serving) and the bar, to be interested
in what happened that we have the kind of scenario presented in the CTC of the
judgement of the Appeal Court.”
The NNPP vowed to pursue justice and retrieve the mandate freely and
willingly given to its candidate in the March 18, 2023, Kano State Governorship
election, Engr. Yusuf, as announced by the electoral umpire, the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The announcement by INEC prompted
the APC, but please note this, without their candidate, to go to the Tribunal
to challenge Engr. Yusuf’s victory and the Tribunal on September 20, 2023,
delivered its ruling and gave victory to the APC candidate, who was not part of
the case.
“Governor Yusuf, promptly proceeded
to the Appeal Court, and three Justices, Justice Moore Adumien, Justice Bitrus Sanga and Justice
Lateef Ganiyu, JCA heard the matter and delivered their judgment on November
17, 2023.
“All efforts to get the CTC of
the judgment for our legal team, up till November 21, 2023, to prepare our
processes for the appeal proved abortive and this prompted the alarm we raised
up till yesterday morning, because time was running out on us.
“We all know that the appeal must
be filed within 14 days. Now we wish to inform the world that we were finally
able to collect the CTC Tuesday afternoon.
“To our greatest surprise, the
CTC showed that the judgment delivered by Justice Adumein and concurred to by
Justice Gyarazama and Justice Ganiyu, is actually in favour of our
candidate, Governor Yusuf.
“At page 67 of the extant
judgment in its conclusive findings held inter alia:”In the circumstances, I
resolve all the issues in favour of the appellant” (Yusuf)” the judgment of the
Tribunal in petition between the APC vs INEC & 2 others delivered on
tSeptember 20, 2023 is hereby set aside.
“The sum of N1million is hereby
awarded as costs in favour of the appellant (Yusuf) and against the 1st
respondent, (APC).
“This is the complex situation we
as a political party and our candidate have found ourselves.
“In addition, we call on leaders,
elders and other major stakeholders in the Nigerian project, including the
media, to step into this matter to avert the danger this type of signal from
the judiciary portends for our democracy in particular, and our country in
general.
“From the scenario presented by
the judgment above, it is crystal clear that something is wrong somewhere and
the onus is on all of us as Nigerians to unearth the riddle.
“This is not just a mistake that can
merely be “corrected” by the Court of Appeal as it doesn’t fall within the
ambit of the ‘Slip Rule,’ where a court can recall the document and correct an
error. Such errors must be so obvious that their correction cannot generate any
controversy, regarding the judgment or decision of the court.
“By the same token, such errors
must be of such nature that their correction would not change the substance of
the judgment or alter the clear intention of the court.
“It is clear to us that the only
conclusion that can be drawn from this judicial debacle is that the average
reasonable person can only conclude that the Court of Appeal changed the
judgment after they had concluded deliberations on the matter, and then mistakenly
left the original conclusion during the cutting and pasting process.
“Whilst our legal team proceeds
to lodge our appeal with the Supreme Court, we once again call for a thorough
investigation of this debacle by the NJCand if need be for the appointment by
the NJC, of an independent investigator to carry out the task.
“However, our faith in the
judiciary remains unshaken,” Ali added.
Reverse Appeal Court judgment, NNPP tells Supreme Court
The party, in the 10-ground of
appeal through a team of lawyers, maintained that the judgment the Court of
Appeal delivered against its candidate on November 17, “was perverse.”
It prayed the apex court to
nullify the entire judgment of the appellate court, except the final conclusion
at page 67 of the duly certified true copy thereof, including order as to cost
favourable to the Appellant, to wit: “The judgment of the tribunal in petition
No: EPT/KN/GOBV/022/2023, between APC Vs IINEC & 2 Ors, delivered on the
20th of September 2023, is hereby set aside.”
The party equally urged the
Supreme Court to sustain a portion of the appellate court judgment where it was
written that the sum of N1million was awarded in its favour and against the APC
candidate, Gawuna.
There’s no confusion -APC
Meanwhile, the National Legal
Adviser of APC, Prof. Abdulkareem Kana,
who also addressed newsmen in Abuja, yesterday,
said there was no confusion concerning the judgement of the tribunal
which the appelate court affirmed.
He said: “Those of us who are
lawyers know that typographical errors often occur in certified true copies of
court judgments.
‘’Ordinarily, this wouldn’t have
been a confusion if it was probably not a political matter, because it will not
be the first time such typographical mistakes will be seen in judgments and
being lawyers we are used to a situation like this.
“All that was done was to merely
correct that mistake. The most important thing is the judgment that was read in
open court,” said Kana.
Asked if the party had formally
sought for correction of the misleading portion of the judgment, Kana said as
far as his office was concerned, he had not received the certified true copy of
the judgment.
“But we will write and get a
copy. If the copy that will be conveyed to us still contains this error, we
will take steps eventually. What we will do and we have done right now, is to
write to demand for the CTC. Until the CTC containing that error, which is
being bandied around, before we will now know what to do next.
“But, I will suggest that
whoever, may have received the CTC containing that error, if he was an
appropriate person and entitled to a copy would have taken necessary steps. I
will say that the court should have taken the necessary steps to make corrections.”
Further, he said; “The merits and
other facts of the judgment of the tribunal which was delivered on September
28, the appeal was upheld. And then if you read through the entirety of the
judgment from the lead justice, my lord analysed the submissions of different
cited cases and the case and arrived at appropriate findings.
“It gives you an idea what should
be the conclusion. But that is not all. If you read the concurring judgments by
two justices, because, there were three judges who sat over the appeal. The two
justices had explained and clarified their positions. If you have really read
the findings of Justice Bitrus Sanga,
who stated that he had read the judgment of my lord Justice Aseimo and he
agreed with him completely, and therefore, dismissed the appeal for lacking in
merit.
“That explains what he had read
because he said he read the draft copy of the documents and he agreed with my
lord, dismissing the appeal for lack of merit. My lord, Justice Ganiyu also
read and delivered his judgment
dismissing the appeal. In other words, there were two concurring judgments out
of three, which are even clearer, very clear, making it obvious that the last
three lines and the concluding part of the judgment of my Lord the presiding
judge whereby an assertion was made on the CTC not as read in open court
finding merit in the appeal and awarding N1million costs on the respondents,
the first respondents instead of the appellant was clearly and obviously an
error.
“In a situation like this, for us
lawyers, what we do, is to do a community reading of the entire judgment to see
what exactly are the findings of the court. For anyone who reads the judgment
from page one all the way to page 72, you will agree that most certainly that
assertion will not hold water ,instead of upholding the judgment of lower court
it sets it aside.
“So, I don’t think the
explanation needs to come from us. But for us, we can only render our
perspective as a party to the entire uproar that is going on. But as to the
explanation as to where the error happened in the cause of typing the judgment,
it is for the court to provide explanation and I am sure the court would have
done that by now by taking necessary measures to issue a fresh CTC with respect
to an appropriate judgment of the court.
“So, for me, I don’t think their
is any confusion as it were except for who would prefer that we will continue
to see it as a confusion”, Kana added.
Protests rock Kano
Meanwhile, the police dispersed
protesters along the Dan Agundi area of the state, following the march, yesterday, over the sacking of Governor Yusuf
by the Appeal Court.
The fresh protests followed the
CTC of the judgment which appeared in public domain and seemed contrary to the
verdict of the appellate court. Some of the protesters said they were ready to
die as they demanded for justice.
Police authorities in Kano had
vowed to clamp down on any group protesting in the state, following the sack of
the governor. A source in the area who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
the protesters, mostly youths, converged on Kofar DanAgundi to stage the
protest and were on the procession when the police dispersed them around Gidan
Murtala along BUK road. According the source, “the protesters started the
protest from DanAgundi but were blocked at around Gidan Murtala.
‘’They were dispersed by the
police who used tear gas. And so they fled.”
Another source in the
neighborhood, said: “We could feel the
tear gas the police used on the protesters.
I saw an helicopter hovering around the area now.’’
Another source said the protest
started when the protesters converged on a football field popularly known as
Filin Mahaha, where they prayed for the victory of Governor Yusuf at the
Supreme Court and were on their way back when they had a clash with police
operatives.
At press time last night, the
police were yet to react to the incident officially
It will be recalled that the
appellate court had on November 17, sacked Yusuf ofNNPP and declared Gawuna of
APC the valid winner of the governorship poll. The appellate court further
awarded a cost of N1m against the sacked governor.
It maintained that a proof of
evidence that was adduced before it, established that the governor was not a
member of the NNPP, as at the time the election held.
According to the court, Yusuf,
under section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not qualified to
contest the governorship election since he was not validly sponsored by the
NNPP.
“A person must be a member of a
political party before he can be sponsored for an election.
“Sponsorship without membership
is like putting something on nothing,” the court held in its lead judgement
that was delivered by Justice Adumeh.
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