Hanga to replace Shekarau at Senate, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court on Friday declared Rufai Hanga the senatorial candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and senator-elect for Kano Central Senatorial District.

The Supreme Court nullified the candidacy of Ibrahim Shekarau, a former governor of Kano State, who defected from the NNPP to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the build-up to the general elections last year.

Shekarau was the flagbearer of the NNPP for the Kano Central Senatorial zone before he dumped the party for the PDP.

But his name remained on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s portal for candidates in the 25 February National Assembly election.

Shekarau was however absent when INEC issued certificates of return to senators-elect in Abuja on March 7.

Delivering judgment on an appeal filed before it by INEC, the Supreme Court affirmed the decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal both in Abuja which had upheld the candidature of Hanga as the standard-bearer NNPP.

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court in a judgement read by Emmanuel Agim said INEC’s appeal lacked merit and substance.

They dismissed the appeal in its entirety.

INEC’s returning officer for Kano Central District, Prof. Tijjani Darma, said Shekarau garnered 456,787 votes.

Darma, said the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Abdulkarim Abdulsalam, came second in the election with 168, 677 votes, while PDP’s Laila Buhari polled 55,237 votes.

But after the declaration of the results, the NNPP agent, Shehu Usman, rejected Shekarau’s emergence as winner of the poll.

He alleged that INEC refused to replace Shekarau’s name with Hanga’s.

Usman said INEC got court orders to accept Hanga’s name and substitute it with Shekarau’s for the poll.

But the electoral umpire refused to comply with the orders.