The National Judicial Council (NJC) has said it would probe the issues surrounding the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Kano State governorship election appeal at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
This was disclosed by the officials of the NJC on Tuesday during a visit to the headquarters of the Media Trust Ltd in Abuja, Daily Trust reports.
Newsmen had reported earlier, how the Court of Appeal last Wednesday released another Certified True Copy (CTC) of its ruling on the Kano State Governorship Election barely 24 hours after it brought out the first CTC which contained its Order affirming the election of Governor Kabir Yusuf and awarding N1million against the All-Progressives Congress (APC).
The Court of Appeal, which has continued to receive backlashes from Nigerians over the controversial orders, brought out the new Certified Copy – a 68-page document.
In the new ruling, the court has now backtracked and ordered that the Kano governor should rather pay N1million to the APC as costs.
In the new CTC also, the Court of Appeal in the ruling read by Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumen, said Governor Yusuf’s appeal was dismissed.
The justice said, “A person must first be a member of a political party before he can be legally or validly sponsored by that party as a candidate for a general election. Where a political party carelessly sponsors a person who is not its member as a candidate for an election, such an act of sponsorship, like a court or tribunal, which undertakes to exercise jurisdiction, which it does not have or possess, is nothing but a nullity, irrespective of whether such a person performs excellently well in the questioned election.
However, in an interview with Daily Trust, the delegation’s leader revealed that petitions had been received and that the council would handle them in accordance with the laws.
“The petitions that have been written would not be taken immediately, they would have to go through the preliminary complaint assessment, those people would look at it, then send to the plenary, then plenary would look at it and they would set up a committee to look into and the judge and the petitioner would come with their lawyers,” he said.
The source said although counsel to Governor Yusuf had opted to make the CTC part of the subjects of the appeal before the Supreme Court, that would not prevent the NJC’s investigation.
