The Supreme Court of Nigeria has scheduled Thursday December 21 for the commencement of hearing of the Kano State government election petition filed by Governor Abba Yusuf.
This was contained in a notice served to both parties by the apex court.
Recall that the Court of Appeal on November 17 in a judgment of a three-man panel upheld the decision of the election petition tribunal which sacked Governor Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Nasiru Gawuna, winner of the March 18 poll.
The appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by Governor Yusuf based on his membership status in the NNPP.
However, the judgment had elicited confusion when on Tuesday November 21, the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court judgment surfaced with contradictions as the CTC showed that all the issues were resolved in favour of Governor Yusuf.
SaharaReporters reported that the court said that there were errors in the lead judgment delivered by Justice Moore Adumein and had asked lawyers to both parties to return the CTC for correction but Governor Yusuf’s legal team refused.
The NNPP, being dissatisfied with the Appeal Court judgment, filed its notice of appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge the November 17 judgment of the appellate court.
The appellants in the notice of appeal dated November 22 and filed by Gboyega Awomolo (SAN), who is the lead counsel of the NNPP listed 10 grounds for challenging the appeal court verdict.
“The entire judgment of the Court of Appeal save and except the conclusion and orders at page 67 of the duly Certified True Copy, CTC including the order as to cost favourable to the appellant,” part of the appellants’ notice of appeal read.
