The Supreme Court removed Shekarau as the NNPP senatorial candidate of the NNPP in the February 25 National Assembly Election and replaced him with Hanga.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Supreme Court has affirmed the nomination of Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the February 25 National Assembly election.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, in a unanimous judgment on Friday, faulted the refusal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to replace Senator Ibrahim Shekarau with Hanga after Shekarau left the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the election.
The Apex Court also removed shekarau as the candidate of the NNPP in the February 25 National Assembly Election.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, written by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, held that the appeal by INEC lacked merit and proceeded to dismiss it.
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The court affirmed the two earlier concurrent judgments by the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal, both in Abuja, in which it was held that Hanga was the candidate of NNPP for the election.
The Federal high court and the court of appeal had in their previous judgment 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 allegedly had with the party.
Rather than obeying the federal high court order, INEC appealed the judgment at the Appellate Court and lost.
Not satisfied with the Judgments of the Trial and Appellate Courts, the electoral body proceeded to the Supreme Court to challenge the judgements which upheld Rufai Hanga as the lawful candidate of the NNPP Kano central Senatorial District.