The Supreme Court on Friday sacked Senator Ibrahim Shekarau as the candidate and senator-elect of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and recognised Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the party’s candidate for the 2023 general election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Shekarau as the winner of the 2023 Kano Central Senatorial District election under NNPP.
Shekarau, a sitting senator was in the NNPP and was nominated to vie for the senatorial position under its platform.
However, before the elections, he announced his defection from the NNPP and abandoned his senatorial ambition to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
But INEC later insisted that it still recognised Shekarau as the legitimate NNPP candidate, even though the party replaced him with Hanga.
Shekarau, who is expected to go to the red chamber for the second time, was declared by the returning officer of the senatorial district, Professor Tijjani Darma.
According to INEC, Shekarau polled 456,787 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress candidate, Alhaji Abdulkarim Zaura, who polled 168,677 votes.
But the Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the nomination of Hanga as the NNPP’s authentic candidate and stopped Shekarau from going to the Red Chamber.
In a unanimous judgement, Justice Inyang Okoro-led five-member panel of the court faulted INEC’s refusal to replace Shekarau with Hanga after the former left the party for PDP before the election.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, written by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed the INEC appeal.
The apex court also upheld the two earlier concurrent judgments by the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal, both in Abuja, that affirmed Hanga as the authentic candidate of the NNPP.
){kind=link}