Renowned law professor and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, recently revealed that the Court of Appeal has made contact with attorneys involved in the Kano State governorship election case, requesting the return of the Certified True Copy of its judgment.
In a Tuesday report by SaharaReporters, the Court of Appeal’s judgment in the Kano State governorship election case caused confusion by favorably resolving all issues in favor of the appellant, Governor Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP).
The court set aside the ruling of the Kano Governorship Election Tribunal, which had earlier ousted Governor Yusuf.
Additionally, the appeal court directed the All Progressives Congress (APC) to compensate Governor Yusuf with a sum of N1 million. The court document explicitly states that it annulled the election tribunal’s decision in the APC’s petition (PT/KN/GOV/01/2023) against the governor, addressing and resolving all issues in favor of the appellant.
In another breath, the court still dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
Reacting to the court document on X (formerly Twitter), Odinkalu who lamented the high level decay of the Nigerian judicial system said that the only way to understand the Appeal Court contradiction was probably that the court changed the judgment after the judges had concluded deliberations.
He said, “When we say the judiciary in Nigeria is crooked, people wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in the Kano governorship case resolved all the issues “in favour of the appellant & against the 1st Respondent.” Yet it found the appeal lacking in merit & liable to be dismissed. Explain!
“The only way to understand or explain this is that the Court of Appeal changed the judgment after they had concluded deliberations. If this does not persuade people as to how bad things are, I don’t know what will.
“I am hearing this evening that the court has been asking the lawyers to return the judgment for “correction”. But this does not fall within the ambit of the Slip Rule. This is Judicial Corruption on the face of the record.”
It had been reported on November 17 that the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the ruling of the Election Petitions Tribunal sacking Governor Yusuf of Kano State.
The court had said that the Appeal Court agreed with the judgment 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.
The verdict comes nearly two months after the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, on September 20 sacked Yusuf and declared the APC candidate, Nasiru Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18 election.
Part of the Appeal Court ruling according to the CTC read, “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 appellant and against the 1st respondent.
“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed.”
