Supreme Court affirms Ruffai Hanga as Kano Central Senator-elect, removes Shekarau. Malam Rufai Hanga was confirmed by the Supreme Court on Friday in Abuja as the senator-elect for Kano State’s Kano Central Senatorial District on the NNPP platform.
Ibrahim Shekarau, a former governor of Kano State and minister of education, was disqualified by the supreme court from running as the NNPP’s candidate in the National Assembly election on February 25.
The Independent National Election Commission, or INEC, had appealed, and the Supreme Court maintained the rulings of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, both in Abuja, which had earlier supported Rufai Hanga’s candidacy as the party’s senatorial candidate.
The Supreme Court determined that the INEC’s appeal lacked merit and substance and subsequently dismissed it entirely in the ruling written by Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji but delivered by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim.
After Ibrahim Shekarau’s resignation as a party member and senatorial candidate due to irreconcilable issues he had with the party leadership, the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had previously affirmed Hanga as the NNPP’s senatorial candidate for Kano Central.
Unfortunately, the INEC decided to take matters into its own hands and appeal the decision rather than comply with the Federal High Court’s ruling. As a result, it lost at the Appellate Court.
The electoral umpire appealed the concurrent findings of the two courts to the Supreme Court after being dissatisfied with the decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, which recognized Hanga as the legitimate candidate of the NNPP Kano Central Senatorial District.
In its ultimate ruling, the supreme court addressed the two articulated concerns and entirely rejected its reasons.
So, the complex question of who is the legitimate senator-elect for the Kano Central Senatorial District following the February 25 elections has now been resolved thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
