The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has voided the election tribunal judgement which declared Musa Ilyasu Kwankwaso of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election for the Kura/Madobi/Garun Malam Federal Constituency in Kano State.
Delivering judgement on Monday, a three-panel of justices also affirmed Yusuf Umar Datti of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) as the authentic election winner.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Datti of NNPP as the winner of the February 25 election for the federal constituency.
However, Kwankwaso proceeded to the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal, asking to be declared the winner.
The applicant argued that Datti did not resign as a member of staff of Bayero University Kano (BUK) before contesting NNPP’s primary election.
In September, the tribunal ruled in Kwankwaso’s favour and sacked Datti.
Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s judgement, Datti approached the Court of Appeal.
Led by Justice Tunde Oyebamiji Awotoye, the appellate court sided with Datti in stating that the tribunal erred in calculating the date of the Appellant’s resignation from the date of his party’s primary election.
Justice Awotoye held that Section 77 of the Electoral Act had been incorrectly applied, asserting that no court has jurisdiction over matters concerning party membership.
Leave a Reply