Dr Boniface Aniebonam, founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), says the Appeal Court ruling that sacked Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State came as a rude shock to the party.
Aniebonam, while reacting to the Appellate Court’s ruling which invalidated Yusuf’s victory at the poll, said only the party could determine who its members are, and not the court.
“Again a rude shock to me hearing the verdict of the appeal court in Abuja against the governor of Kano state, Abba Yusuf of NNPP.”
“I do know that it is only the NNPP and its members that can determine who is a member of the party.
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“I also know that a party and its members can bring into the party, and grant such a person a waiver to go into election and represent the party in an election.
“I also know and believe that it is only someone who contested nomination under NNPP that can challenge the membership of the party in an election.
“To the contrary, no other person has the right to raise objection,” Aniebonam said in a statement on Saturday.
He, however, said that the NNPP still believed that justice would not only be done but seen to have been done.
The founder said: “Our hope is alive ahead the Supreme Court judgment in due time.
“I hereby encourage all members of our great party and indeed the indigenes of Kano in particular to keep faith with the final decision of God under this avoidable circumstances.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that in an epochal judgment on Friday, the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja upheld the decision of the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which sacked Yusuf earlier in September.
The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that Yusuf was not a valid candidate in the gubernatorial election that held in the state on March 18.
The justices stated that a proof of evidence that was tendered before the court, established that the governor was not a member of the NNPP, as at the time the election held.
“Sponsorship without membership is like putting something on nothing,” the appellate court held in its lead judgment that was delivered by Justice M. U. Adumeh.
Consequently, the appellate court declared Nasiru Gawuna of the APC winner of the March 18, 2023 Kano state governorship election.
However, a Lagos-based constitutional lawyer and public affairs analyst, Mr Jide Ologun, said sack of Yusuf by the Appellate Court on Friday is in accordance with the constitution.
“This is by virtue of non-compliance with the provision of section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as he was not validly sponsored by the NNPP,” the legal practitioner said.
According to him, the constitution stipulates that a person must be a member of a political party before he can be sponsored for an election.
“Section 77 of the Electoral Act 2022 also requires each political party to maintain a membership register in hard and soft copy and to make such register available to the INEC not later than 30 days before the date fixed for primaries, congresses and conventions.
“In litigation, he who alleges bears the burden of proof of the facts according to S. 131, Evidence Act, 2011.
“Whoever desires any court to give judgment as to any legal right or liability dependent on the existence of facts which he asserts shall prove that those facts exist.
“The appellant obviously failed to credibly convince the court to uphold his victory at the polls,” Ologun said.
Ologun, however, said that the appellant had the opportunity of proceeding to the Supreme Court, being the Apex Court in Nigeria since 1963, when we became a Republic, and the decision at the Apex court would become final. (NAN)
