JUST-IN: Supreme Court Sacks Shekarau As Senator-Elect

JUST-IN: Supreme Court Sacks Shekarau As Senator-Elect

The Supreme Court on Friday sacked Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, the senator-elect on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and recognised Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the party’s authentic candidate for the 2023 general election.

New Telegraph had reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Shekarau the winner of the 2023 Kano Central Senatorial District  in the just concluded election.

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

Shekarau, a sitting senator was nominated to vie for the senatorial position on the platform before he defected to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the build up of the 2023 general election.

However, the Supreme Court affirmed the nomination of Hanga as the NNPP’s authentic candidate after Shekarau abandoned his senatorial ambition to join the PDP.

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.

Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, written by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, dismissed the INEC appeal.

The court upheld the two earlier concurrent judgments by the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal, both in Abuja, that affirmed Hanga as the authentic candidate of NNPP.