Appeal Court Judgment: NNPP Women Supporters Storm Police HQ In Kano

Supporters of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) have continued to protest the Appeal Court’s judgment that sacked Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State.

But this time, the women supporters of the party took their agitation to the police headquarters in Kano to protest what they called an injustice by the appellate court.

Although police authorities in the state have warned against protests, the women in their hundreds, carried placards with diverse inscriptions and marched from the residence of the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Rabiu Kwankwaso to the police headquarters on Sunday.

They are calling for justice, insisting that Governor Yusuf won the March governorship election in the North-West state. Some of them also went spiritual during the protest.

The most recent protest, coming about a week after the court verdict, is the third since the Appeal Court sacked the state governor over what it termed his ineligibility to contest the election.

According to the court, the party’s fielding of Yusuf breached the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest that poll. It thus declared the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Nasiru Gawuna as the winner of the exercise.

But the NNPP and Governor Yusuf have already rejected the judgment and headed to the Supreme Court to challenge the verdict.

Governor Yusuf, who unseated the ruling APC in the state to sweep to victory, labelled it a “miscarriage of justice”.

“After careful study and rigorous stakeholder engagement, my team and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), have decided to approach the Supreme Court on the miscarriage of justice, delivered by the Appeal Court, yesterday in Abuja,” he said in a broadcast to residents of the North-West state in the wake of the judgment.

His party believes the sacking of its only governor counts among the “most ridiculous judgments” in the country’s history.

“In spite of overwhelming evidence presented to the tribunal by our team of lawyers, the tribunal passed one of the most ridiculous judgments in the history of election jurisprudence in Nigeria and unjustly declared the APC candidate, who had never joined the petition, as the winner of the election,” the party’s Acting National Chairman Abba Ali said.

“It is therefore unbelievable that the appeal court will refuse to look at the merit of our party’s appeal and cling to the erroneous issue of membership that has already been settled severally [sic] by both the appeal and Supreme Court.”