South West Chapter Cautions APC Against Desperation To Win Kano
The leadership of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has rejected last Friday’s judgment of the Court of Appeal, which sacked Governor Kabir Yusuf as the Governor of Kano State.
Addressing journalists yesterday in Abuja, the acting National Chairman of the party, Abba Ali, described the judgment as a miscarriage of justice.
He said: “We are gathered here today to convey our outright rejection of and express our dismay at the judgment of the Court of Appeal in respect of the only elected governor on the platform of our dear party, the NNPP.
“To say the least, we are shocked at the miscarriage of justice delivered on Friday, November 17, 2023 on the governorship election petition of Kano State.
“We are not unmindful of the political desperation of the APC leaders in Kano State, who were roundly rejected at the polls and who are now scampering to hijack power at all cost through the chambers of the court as they did in 2019.”
Ali recalled that the people of the state elected the governor with 1,019,602 votes.
He also recalled that the APC candidate promptly congratulated the governor on his defeat and conceded defeat.
The chairman said that the party has already briefed its lawyers to appeal the judgment at the Supreme Court.
He added: “We call on all well-meaning Nigerians to intervene in the Kano situation as it is increasingly becoming the test case for the survival of democracy in Nigeria and the credibility of the judicial system”.
“We are therefore calling on the ruling party to save democracy in Nigeria by halting their clandestine moves to annihilate all other political parties and drag the country into a one-party system.
“We are calling on the international community to support our country to deepen multi-party democracy and stop the APC from turning the country into a one–party state.”
Similarly, the South West Zone of the party warned President Bola Ahmed Dinuba and the ruling party against “plunging Kano State into chaos because of their desperation to unseat Yusuf.”
Leader of the Southwest NNPP, AL haji Basic Olopoeyan, in an exclusive interview with The Guardian, called for caution over what he described as desperation by the APC and the Presidency to use the instrumentality of the courts to overturn the popular wish of the electorate in Kano State.
Olopoeyan said it beats human logic that what the tribunal upheld to sack Yusuf was totally different from what the Justices of the Appeal Court upheld.
According to him, “the stakeholders involved in the shenanigan must realise the serious implications of teleguiding the courts to subvert the popular vote of Kano State.”
The NNPP stalwart also frowned at the way elections were being won in the country through the courts instead of through the votes of the electorate.
He described the judgment of the Appeal Court, which sacked Yusuf, as ambiguous and unacceptable.
“I trust the Supreme Court would do necessary justice,” he noted.
