Our reporter/ The court of appeal sitting Abuja has fixed Friday for the judgment in the appeal filed by governor Abba Kabir Yusuf challenging his removal by the governorship election petitions tribunal.
A three-man panel of judges led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay had sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023, by declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid because they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The governor’s votes were then reduced to 853,939 while those of Nasir Ganuwa, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rivel remained at 890,705.
Yusuf had rejected the tribunal verdict, which he described as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice”, and headed to the appeal court.
At the court, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, the lead counsel for Yusuf, urged the tribunal to set aside the judgement of the tribunal.
The senior lawyer argued that this is the first time in the history that a tribunal would annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers.
According to him, the tribunal erred, arguing further that, that was the first time that a political party would file a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition and the candidate would declared winner of the polls.
But Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel for APC, countered him saying the Appeal Court stated emphatically that the non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral malpractice.
He argued that INEC regulations have set out what presiding officers are to do at the point of voting, adding that the back of ballot papers must be signed and dated.
The appellate court had reserved judgement, saying a date would be communicated to the parties involved.
On Thursday, the court announced that judgment would be delivered on Friday.
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