Kano Central: Supreme court affirms Hanga as senator-elect, drops Shekarau

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

The Supreme Court has finally laid to rest the issue of who is the authentic Senator-elect for the Kano Central Senatorial District in the February 25 elections.

The Apex court, Friday, affirmed Malam Rufai Hanga as the Senator Elect for the zone under the platform of the New Nigeria People’s Party NNPP.

With the judgement, the court has kicked out a former Kano state governor and former Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau as the candidate for the party

The Apex Court upheld the judgments of a Federal High

Court and the Court of Appeal both in Abuja which had earlier upheld the candidature of Rufai Hanga as the Senatorial candidate of the party.

In a unanimous judgement, delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, supreme court held that the INEC’s appeal lacked merit and substance and thereafter dismissed it in its entirety. The courts below, had in their previous judgments upheld Rufai Hanga as the Senatorial Candidate of the NNPP for Kano Central following the withdrawal of Ibrahim Shekarau as a member of the party and Senatorial Candidate due to irreconcilable differences he had with the party leadership. However, rather than obeying the federal high court order, the INEC took it upon itself and appealed the judgment at the end of which it lost at the Appellate Court.

Also, not satisfied with the judgments, the electoral umpire proceeded for the supreme court.