Following the Supreme Court verdict which affirmed the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Omoyele Sowore, the candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, took to social media to express his scepticism of the court’s motives.
“They’ve affirmed Kano for NNPP not because they wanted to but because they dread the consequences!” he wrote on his X account, implying that the ruling was driven by fear rather than a fair evaluation of the evidence.
The controversy stems from the 2023 governorship election, which was initially won by Yusuf but then challenged by his rival, Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The election petition tribunal in Kano found irregularities with ballot papers and deducted over 165,000 votes from Yusuf’s total, leading to his disqualification.
However, the Supreme Court disagreed with the lower courts’ interpretation, stating that the issue of ballot validity was not sufficient to overturn the election. Furthermore, the court declared that challenges regarding party nominations, like the one raised against Yusuf’s NNPP membership, are internal matters beyond the purview of the judiciary.
