Supreme Court sacks ex-Kano Gov. Shekarau as senator-elect

Barely 14 days after his election as senator, a former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, has been disqualified by the Supreme Court.

Persecondnews recalls that Shekarau was declared winner of the February 25 on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

But on Friday a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, ruled in a unanimous judgment disqualifying the senator-elect.

Instead, the court recognized Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the party’s candidate for the 2023 general election.

Persecondnews gathered that before the elections, the former Kano governor had announced his defection from the NNPP to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The apex court faulted INEC for refusing to replace Hanga with Shekarau as the NNPP candidate after the he decamped to PDP.

Following Shekarau’s withdrawal as a party member and senatorial candidate, the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had in an earlier ruling recognized Hanga as the NNPP’s candidate for Kano Central.

However, instead of complying with the federal high court’s ruling, INEC appealed the judgment at the Appellate Court and lost.

The INEC’s appeal was dismissed, according to Justice Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the lead ruling on behalf of the supreme court, saying it “lacked merit and substance.”

Not satisfied with the judgments of the lower courts, the electoral body proceeded to the apex court to challenge the judgements which upheld Hanga as the lawful candidate of the NNPP for the Kano Central Senatorial District.