The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said its official who issued a statement that the commission was not interested in appealing the judgement of the Governorship Election Tribunal judgement sacking the Kano State governor, Abba Yusuf, was not authorised to do so.
The INEC’s head of the legal department in Kano, Suleiman Alkali, on Friday, stated that the commission had withdrawn its appeal as it had no reason to appeal the tribunal judgment.
The letter, which was addressed to the secretary of the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, partly read: “I have been instructed by the Commission headquarters that INEC as an umpire have no reason to appeal any judgment.
“Consequently, the National Commission in charge of Legal Services and National Commissioner in charge of Kano zone directed that the appeal be withdrawn and all processes for all appeals should be forwarded to the Kano Office,” the letter said.
Reaction
But in a swift response late Saturday, the INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said the letter by Mr Alkali was not authorised and the officer has been reprimanded.
“The attention of the Commission has been drawn to media reports based on a letter written by the Legal Officer of our Kano State office indicating that the Commission had withdrawn from the appeal process in the ongoing Kano governorship election petition case.
“We wish to state categorically that the letter was not authorised. It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded.
“The public is therefore advised to discountenance the insinuation that the Commission has withdrawn from the case or even worse abandoned the appeal.
“We wish to state categorically that where litigants join INEC in a case, the Commission is under obligation to respond accordingly. We have therefore instructed our lawyers to proceed in line with the extant policy of the Commission. The policy has not changed,” Mr Olumekun said.
The appeal
Mr Yusuf filed a notice of appeal challenging the judgement of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacking him as governor.
The tribunal ruled that the candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Nasiru Gawuna, was the winner of the 18 March election.
The APC sued the INEC, the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) and Governor Yusuf as the respondents.
But Mr Yusuf through his party, the NNPP in appeal no EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023 dated 2 October said he is not satisfied with the tribunal judgement.
He therefore asked the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgement of the tribunal because the tribunal erred by delivering the judgement virtually which violates the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) among other grounds he approached the Court of Appeal with.
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