A’court sacks Ilyasu Kwankwaso as Kano lawmaker, declares NNPP’S Datti winner

The court of appeal in Abuja has sacked Musa Ilyasu Kwankwaso (pictured) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the lawmaker representing Kura/Madobi/Garun Malam federal constituency in the national assembly.

The court declared Yusuf Datti, candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as the winner of the election.

The verdict of the appeal court reverses the judgment delivered by the Kano election petition tribunal.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the NNPP candidate as the winner of the February 25 poll.

Dissatisfied, Kwankwaso filed a petition seeking the nullification of Datti’s victory.

In September, the tribunal sacked the NNPP candidate and declared Kwankwaso the winner of the poll on the ground that the NNPP candidate did not resign as a member of staff of the Bayero University Kano (BUK) before contesting his party’s primary election.

Datti appealed the verdict of the tribunal.

Delivering judgment on Monday at the appellant court, the three-man panel led by Tunde Oyebamiji held that the tribunal was wrong to have counted the date of the appellant’s resignation from the date of his party’s primary election.

The panel added that Section 77 of the Electoral Act was misapplied, noting that the issue of membership of a political party is an internal affair, which no court has jurisdiction over.