Supreme Court Sacks Senator Elect

The nomination of Rufai Hanga as the Kano central senatorial district candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has been affirmed by the Supreme Court.

Ibrahim Shekarau, a former Kano governor who was earlier nominated by NNPP and declared winner of the election, was removed from the position by the apex court.

Prior to the election, the former Governor announced his defection from the NNPP and abandoned his senatorial ambition to join the Peoples Democratic Party.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission insisted that it still recognised him as the legitimate NNPP candidate, even though the party replaced him with Hanga.

From the election results, INEC said Shekarau polled 456,787 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress candidate, Alhaji Abdulkarim Zaura, who polled 168,677 votes.

Ruling on the case on Friday, March 10, the Supreme Court affirmed the nomination of 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.