A chieftain of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Buba Galadima, has said Nigerians would have stoned judges of the Supreme Court on the streets if they had sacked Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf of Kano State.
Last Friday, the apex court delivered judgements in eight governorship disputes, upturning the verdicts of lower courts in three of the cases.
Of the eight cases, those of Kano, Zamfara and Plateau stood out as the Supreme Court overruled the earlier decisions of the tribunal and the appellate court to reinstate the governors in the three states.
Before Friday’s judgement on the Kano governorship dispute, tension was high in the North-West state which has been a battleground between ex-Kano governor and current national chairman of the ruling party, Abdullahi Ganduje and the 2023 NNPP presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
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Though NNPP’s Yusuf and Kwankwaso’s ally was declared as winner of the March 2023 poll by the electoral umpire, both the tribunal and the appellate court subsequently sacked him and declared APC’s Nasiru Gawuna as the winner of the election.
Yusuf however approached the apex court to seek redress and the justices reversed his sack, declaring him as the duly elected governor.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Galadima said: “Let me first congratulate the Supreme Court for restoring the order, diginity of the judiciary. The congratulation is not for NNPP or Abba, it’s for the Supreme Court.
“If they had ruled otherwise, they could have been stoned on the streets of Nigeria and nobody could have been able to drive a car with the inscription of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“There would have been a total loss of confidence in the judiciary and I don’t think that anybody would ever dream of going to the court to seek redress because the court of public opinion all over the world suggests that Abba’s victory was genuine.”
He claimed in the 2023 general election, the only place election took place was Kano, adding that APC did everything to win Kano.
“There was a plan to take Kano by force from every level,” he alleged.
Speaking about the mammoth crowd that came out to welcome the Kano governor into the state on Sunday, Galadima said it showed the popularity of the party and its leadership in Kano.
“If Kwankwaso says go and jump in the fire and die, I’m telling you, half of Kano people will do that because they so much believe in him,” he said.
