Appeal Court Orders Lawyers To Return Certified Copy Of Kano Gov’Ship Election Verdict For ‘Correction’ – Prof Odinkalu Raises Alarm

A law professor and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has said that the Court of Appeal has reportedly reached out to lawyers involved in the Kano State governorship election case to return the Certified True Copy of its judgment.

VerseNews had reported how the Court of Appeal created confusion in its judgment as it resolved all the issues in the appeal in favour of the appellant, Governor Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), and set aside the ruling of the Kano Governorship Election Tribunal which sacked the Governor.

The appeal court had also ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pay Governor Yusuf N1million.

According to the court document, the appeal court set aside the ruling of the election tribunal in the petition of the APC, PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between the APC and the governor, and resolved all the issues in the appeal against the 1st respondent.

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.”