By Damilare Adeleye
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Friday, upheld the nullification of the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State by the State Election Petition Tribunal.
The appellate court led by a three-member panel of justices unanimously ruled that Governor Yusuf was not a valid candidate in the gubernatorial election that was held in the state on March 18.
It maintained that evidence that was put forward by the parties established that Governor Yusuf was not a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, at the time the election was held.
It stated that Yusuf, under section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not qualified to contest the governorship election since he was not validly sponsored by the NNPP.
“A person must be a member of a political party before he can be sponsored for an election.
“Sponsorship without membership is like putting something on nothing,” the court held in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice M. U. Adumeh.
Consequently, the appellate court upheld the earlier judgement of the Kano state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which nullified Governor Yusuf’s election.