The Supreme Court has sacked Senator Ibrahim Shekarau as the candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party and recognised Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the party’s candidate for the 2023 general election.
It should be recalled that Shekarau was declared the winner of the 2023 Kano Central Senatorial District election under NNPP.
Meanwhile, Shekarau, a sitting senator was in the NNPP and was nominated to vie for the senatorial position under NNPP.
However, before the elections, he announced his defection from the NNPP and abandoned his senatorial ambition to join the Peoples Democratic Party.
Despite the replacement of Shekarau with Hanga by the party, INEC went ahead to declare Shekarau as the legitimate Candidate of NNPP.
Eventually, According to INEC, Shekarau polled 456,787 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress candidate, Alhaji Abdulkarim Zaura, who polled 168,677 votes.
However, the Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the nomination of Hanga as NNPP’s authentic candidate.
In a unanimous judgement, Justice Inyang Okoro-led five-member panel of the court faulted INEC’s refusal to replace Shekarau with Hanga after the former left the party for PDP before the election.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, written by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed INEC’s appeal.
