Appeal Court reacts to controversial Kano verdict, admits typo in CTC

The Court of Appeal has reacted to the controversies trailing its judgement in the Kano governorship election dispute.

The appellate court had on Friday, November 17, 2023, upheld the judgement of the Kano Election Petition Tribunal, which sacked Governor Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and handed victory to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Yusuf Gawuna.

However, controversy ensued after the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the judgement in the public domain seemed to contradict the decision of the Court of Appeal.

The development caused an uproar and a series of interpretations of the judgement, with both parties claiming victory.

Clearing the air on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Umar Bangari, said some typographical error in the body of the document caused the confusion.

Bangari, however, insisted that the error didn't in any way invalidate the original decision of the court or change the findings and conclusion of the court.

While assuring Nigerians that the error would be rectified, the Chief Registrar urged the parties in the matter to file formal applications to that effect.

He cited Order 23 Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal Handbook, which empowered the court to correct any clerical error once detected by the court or any of the parties in the matter.

Bangari dismissed the suggestion that the Appeal Court upheld the victory of Yusuf as Kano State Governor.

The Appeal Court affirmed the tribunal's decision, which voided 165,663 votes of the NNPP candidate because they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Consequently, the governor's votes were reduced to 853,939, paving the way for Gawuna to overtake him in the final tally with 890,705 votes.