THE Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the appeal filed by the Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, challenging the verdict of the Court of Appeal and the State Election Petitions Tribunal, which removed him from office.
The five-member panel, led by Justice John Okoro, reserved the judgement after parties adopted their brief of arguments.
On November 13, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict of the tribunal. In its ruling, the Appeal Court agreed with the judgement of the tribunal, ruling that the fielding of Abba Yusuf was in breach of the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest that election.
In September, the tribunal nullified the victory of Yusuf, the candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), in the March 18 governorship election.
The tribunal also affirmed Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of Kano.
However, the NNPP notified the apex court of the contradictions in the CTC of the judgment which upheld the governor’s election and awarded him the sum of N1 million in damages.
In the long argument before the apex court on Thursday, parties raised issues concerning the jurisdiction of the court in political party membership of a candidate.
The lawyers also argued over whether the court could “visit the sin” of INEC’ failure to sign over 160,000 ballot papers on the voters in Kano State.
