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.
Shekarau had been declared winner of the 2023 Kano Central Senatorial District election under NNPP.
The former governor, who is a sitting senator, was in the NNPP and was nominated to vie for the senatorial position under its platform.
But recall that before the elections, he announced his defection from the NNPP and abandoned his senatorial ambition to join the Peoples Democratic Party.
Nonetheless, the Independent National Electoral Commission later insisted that it still recognised him as the legitimate NNPP candidate, even though the party replaced him with Hanga.
However, the Supreme Court disagreed on Friday and affirmed 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.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, written by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed the INEC appeal.
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