Lawyers to Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf and justices of the Court of Appeal are currently at loggerheads over the contradictory certified true copy (CTC) of the judgment sacking him as governor
The development is coming after both sides rejected service of fresh processes involved in the matter.
Governor Yusuf’s lawyers filed a fresh notice of appeal before the Court of Appeal in Abuja seeking to uphold only the aspect of the judgment which is in their favour and overturn parts that are not.
However, the staff of the Court of Appeal refused service of the processes at the court, forcing the legal team to proceed to the Kano Division of the court where same was accepted with revenue collector’s receipt number: 13164334.
Meanwhile, officials of the Court of Appeal sent letters to counsels to all the parties in the matter to return the CTCs for correction, which Governor Yusuf’s lawyers also refused service.
A three-member panel led by Justice Moore Adumein had on Friday reaffirmed Governor Abba Yusuf’s sack from office over alleged non-qualification.
It held that the governor was not a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
Barely 24 hours after it brought out the first CTC which contained its Order affirming the election of Governor Kabir Yusuf and awarding N1million against the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Appeal Court has released another Certified True Copy (CTC) of its ruling on the Kano State Governorship Election.
The court brought out the new certified copy – a 68-page document obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday.
In the new ruling, the court has now backtracked and ordered that the Kano governor should rather pay N1million to the APC as costs.
In the new CTC also, the Court of Appeal in the ruling read by Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumen, said Governor Yusuf’s appeal was dismissed.
The justice said, “A person must first be a member of a political party before he can be legally or validly sponsored by that party as a candidate for a general election. Where a political party carelessly sponsors a person who is not its member as a candidate for an election, such an act of sponsorship, like a court or tribunal, which undertakes to exercise jurisdiction, which it does not have or possess, is nothing but a nullity, irrespective of whether such a person performs excellently well in the questioned election.
Sponsorship without membership is like putting something on nothing and it cannot stand.
“The applicable legal maxim is: “Ex nihilo nihil fit” which means: “From nothing nothing comes”. In this case, the 3rd respondent shot herself in its foot by undertaking to sponsor the appellant before fishing for his membership of the party after the election.
“By way of a subtle reminder to our political actors and players, this case is a very clear example of a political party or some of its members acting with brazen, imperforate or impervious impunity, as if the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is not binding; by presenting a person as its candidate for a serious general election when, by its own member register, it is ex facie manifest that the person was not its member before the election. And the same political party, or members thereof, would wake up to accuse the Judiciary of sundry wrongdoings, including the infamous allegation of corrupt practices.
“From the facts of this case, I am tempted to think and say that within the collective conscience of the appellant and the 3rd respondent they know the truth of this matterAnd I am reminded of those indelible and evergreen words, credited to the highly revered sage Uthman Dan Fodio, that: “Conscience is like an open wound, only truth can heal it” I will say no more
“I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant. In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant.
Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed. The judgment of the tribunal in Petition No.: EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between: ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) vINDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION & 2 ORS. delivered on the 20th day of September, 2023 is hereby affirmed.
“The sum of N1,000,000.00 (one million naira only) is hereby awarded as costs in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant.”
