BREAKING: Supreme Court Sacks Prominent Senator-Elect, Gives Reason

• Senator Ibrahim Shekarau has been sacked as the candidate of the NNPP in the February 25 National Assembly election
• The Supreme Court gave the verdict on Friday, March 10, and affirmed Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the party’s authentic candidate
• The apex court faulted the decision of INEC to still recognise Shekarau as the NNPP candidate even after the senator defected to the PDP

FCT, Abuja - The Supreme Court has sacked Senator Ibrahim Shekarau as the candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) in the February 25 National Assembly election.

The apex court in a judgement delivered on Friday, March 10, recognised Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the party’s candidate, The Punch reported.

Recall that Shekarau was declared the winner of the 2023 Kano Central Senatorial District election on the platform of the NNPP.

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Shekarau, a sitting senator was in the NNPP and was nominated to vie for the senatorial position on its platform but later abandoned his senatorial ambition and defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The NNPP subsequently replaced Shekarau with Senator Rufa’i Hanga but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused to recognise the latter as the legitimate NNPP candidate.

Shekarau was declared by the returning officer of the senatorial district, Professor Tijjani Darma.

According to INEC, Shekarau polled over 400,000 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Alhaji Abdulkarim Zaura, who polled nearly 170,000 votes.

Supreme Court gives verdict

Ruling on the case on Friday, the Supreme Court affirmed the nomination of Hanga as the 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.

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The panel also dismissed the INEC's appeal, The Nation also reported.

The court, however, upheld the two earlier concurrent judgments by the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal, both in Abuja, that affirmed Hanga as the authentic candidate of NNPP.

Supreme Court gives final verdict on APC governorship candidate

In another report, the nomination of Akan Udofia as the governorship candidate of the APC in Akwa Ibom was affirmed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 7.

An aspirant and former senator, Ita Enang, had challenged the candidature of Akan as the flagbearer of the APC in the state.

Enang had urged the court to declare him as the authentic governorship candidate of the APC in the state, alleging that Udofia was not an APC member as of the time the APC primary was conducted.

Source: Legit.ng