The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), under whose candidate, Abba Yusuf won in the March 18 governorship election, has rejected the Appeal Court judgment awarding victory to the candidate of the All Progressive Congress }APC} Nasiru Gawuna.
The Appellate court concurs with the judgment of the tribunal two months ago. In its ruling on Friday which ruled that the party’s fielding of Yusuf breached the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest that poll. It thus declared the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Nasiru Gawuna as the winner of the election.
About one day after the judgment, the NNPP said it was surprised over the verdict on the governorship election in one of Nigeria’s key states and described it as a “miscarriage of justice”.
“To say the least, we were shocked at the miscarriage of justice delivered on Friday 17th of November, 2023 on the governorship election petition of Kano State,” NNPP’s Acting National Chairman Abba Ali told journalists at a Saturday news conference in Abuja.
“In spite of overwhelming evidence presented to the tribunal by our team of lawyers, the tribunal passed one of the most ridiculous judgments in the history of election jurisprudence in Nigeria and unjustly declared the APC candidate, who had never joined the petition, as the winner of the election.
“It is therefore unbelievable that the appeal court will refuse to look at the merit of our party’s appeal and cling to the erroneous issue of membership that has already been settled severally [sic] by both the appeal and Supreme Court.”