ABUJA — 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 A-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 A-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 A-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.
