The Supreme Court has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to replace Ibrahim Shekarau with Rufai Hanga as the Kano Central senatorial candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
In a judgment delivered on Friday by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the Supreme Court upheld the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which ordered INEC to recognise Mr Hanga as the candidate.
INEC had declared Shekarau winner of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. But the apex court upheld the judgement of the Court of Appeal which recognised Hanga as the NNPP candidate.
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, NNPP leader and its Presidential Candidate, had welcomed Shekarau and his supporters to the party, but both men soon fell apart. Hanga is the pioneer national chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). He chaired one of the parties which collapsed to form the APC in 2014.
In an interview with Daily Trust in the buildup to the 2023 elections, Hanga said there was an agreement that President Muhammadu Buhari would hand over power to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Hanga was a key member of the APC before he left the party and an ally of Buhari.
