Supreme Court Confirms Election Of NNPP’s Ruffai Hanga As Kano Central Senator, Removes Shekarau
By Abdullahi Ahmad Bamalli
The Supreme Court on Friday confirmed the election of Rufai Hanga as a senator for the Central Kano Senate constituency under the platform of the New Nigerian People’s Party, the NNPP.
In a verdict prepared by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji and delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the court found INEC’s appeal to be baseless and without merit and therefore dismissed it outright.
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In the February 25 National Assembly elections, the Apex court expelled former Kano Governor Ibrahim Shekalau as an NNPP candidate.
Delivering the Judgement in an appeal brought before it by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the apex court upheld the Judgments of a federal high court and the court of appeal both in Abuja which had earlier upheld the candidature of Hanga as the candidate of the party.
The Federal high court and the court of appeal had in their previous judgement upheld Rufai Hanga as the Senatorial Candidate of the NNPP for Kano Central following the withdrawal of Ibrahim Shekarau as a member of the party and Senatorial Candidate due to irreconcilable differences he had with the party.
However, rather than obeying the federal high court order, the INEC took it upon itself and appealed the judgement at the end of which it lost at the appellate court.
Not satisfied with the Judgments of the Federal high court and the court of appeal, the electoral umpire proceeded for the Supreme Court to challenge the concurrent findings of the two courts which upheld Hanga as the lawful candidate of the NNPP Kano central Senatorial District.
