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Says anti people’s action will fuel tension
A Civil Society Organisation, Citizens Participation Against Corruption Initiative (CPACI) has urged the Supreme Court to tread carefully in giving verdict on Kano State governorship election case, saying it is more delicate than the presidential election dispute.
CPAICI stated that in the case of presidential election dispute, President Bola Tinubu garnered the highest votes, hence it was easier for the people to accept the verdict of the apex court .
The Executive Director of CPAICI, Comrade Bishir Dauda Sabuwar who gave the admonition at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, however said in the case of Kano, the candidate that got the highest votes was Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP).
The Independent National Electoral Commission had NNP’s Kabir winner of the March Kano governorship election having garnered 1,019,602 votes to defeat his closest rival, Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 890,705 votes.
However, Gawuna had approached Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and Appeal Court which both declared him winer of the polls citing irregularities while Governor Kabir went to the Supreme Court to challenge the verdict.
To this end, Sabuwar said: “What people saw after INEC had returned the elected winner, is that some Judges at a tribunal sat down and used calculator to deduct all those votes cast for the declared winner and rendered them useless,and then declared the candidate who got less votes in the election as winner of the elections. This is something that many people will not accept.
“It is this type of abracadabra that undermines our democracy. Already, many people see what happened in Kano state governorship judgement as a coup against democracy, and naked injustice. They perceived it as an attempt by the ruling APC under the leadership of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to steal the mandate the people of Kano state gave Abba Kabir Yusuf on the platform of NNPP.”
He warned that, taking into cognisance the prevailing tension in Kano state; “the atmosphere of despair”; it is obvious that any judgement that invalidate the popular mandate will impact adversely on the country’s electoral democracy.
“This will include exacerbation of voter apathy. From the conversation of the ordinary people in the streets; we have gathered that there will be massive voter apathy in the subsequent elections if the Supreme Court failed to do the right thing. There will be a crisis of legitimacy, bitter and unhealthy political rivalry.
“Another implication is that of image crisis for the Judiciary. Already, the notion hold widely by many people in Nigeria is that the Judiciary is no longer an independent arm of government. That there are very powerful people in the presidency who are remotely controlling the Judiciary. Whether this is true or false; it is bad for the last hope of the ‘common man’.
“Therefore, now the ball is in the Supreme Court to do the needful. Correct the anomaly and change the prevalent negative perception of the Judiciary.Let me repeat that this is a golden opportunity for the apex court to change the negative narrative and reverse the ugly trend that poses great danger to our democracy and peace,” he stated.
