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Just In: Appeal Court Reserves Judgment in Yusuf, Gawuna Governorship Tussle
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has reserved judgement in the appeal filed by Kano state governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, challenging the nullification of his election by the Kano Election Petition Tribunal.
At the court sitting on Monday, the governor’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun SAN prayed the court to allow the appellant’s appeal and set aside in its entirety, the judgement of the lower Tribunal.
The Counsel argued that the lower Tribunal has created new precedents which depart from all the judgments made by the appellate or Supreme Court.
On the issue of ballot papers, he contended that this is the first time in the history of the court that a Tribunal will annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers.
“In doing that, the lower Tribunal erred,” Olanipekun said.
He further argued that this was the first time that a political party filed a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition and the latter was declared winner of the polls.
“Can a political party be sworn after an election or take an oath?,” Olanipekun argued holding that the judgement of the lower Tribunal should not be allowed to stand
Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel for APC, in his reply on the issue of valid ballot, said the decisions of the Appeal Courts right from 2009 have emphatically stated if non signing of ballots amounts to electoral malpractice.
He argued that INEC regulations have set out what presiding officers are to do at the point of voting, adding that the back of ballot papers must be signed and dated.
He said where there is a failure of presiding officers to do the needful, it amounts to non-compliance to the Electoral Act.
On the APC candidate who was not joined as a party at the Tribunal, Olujimi said it is settled law that votes are cast for the party in an election and that any decision affecting a political party embraces all its members.
“Judgement in this appeal is hereby reserved to a date to be communicated to the parties,” the court of appeal said.
In the APC’s cross-appeal, Olujimi also urged the court to hold that the Kano State governor was not a member of the NNPP as of the time he was sponsored by the party.
A.B Mahmoud SAN, counsel for INEC, asked the appeal court to dismiss APC’s cross-appeal for lacking in merit.
It could be recalled that on September 20, 2023, the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had nullified the election of Mr Yusuf by declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid, saying they were not signed or stamped by INEC.
INEC had declared Mr Yusuf winner of the March 18, 2023 election after he secured 1,019,602 votes against his opponent Nasiru Gawuna who secured 890,705 votes.
However, after the tribunal deducted the 165,663 votes from Mr Yusuf’s tally, his votes were reduced to 853, 939, which were over 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Mr Gawuna.
Consequently, the court declared the APC candidate winner of the governorship election and ordered the INEC to withdraw Mr Yusuf’s certificate of return and give Gawuna a new one.
But Mr Yusuf and his party the NNPP as well as the INEC appealed the tribunal’s judgement.
Source: DailyNews24
The Super Eagles’ 2026 World Cup dream suffered a major blow on Sunday as DR Congo advanced to the intercontinental playoff following a dramatic penalty shootout at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
Nigeria’s hopes of qualifying ended in heartbreaking fashion, marking the second consecutive year the Super Eagles will miss out on the world stage.
The match ended 1–1 after 120 minutes of regulation and extra time, sending the high-stakes encounter to penalties.
Nigeria initially went ahead through Frank Onyeka in the third minute, but DR Congo equalised in the 32nd minute through M. Elia.
The tension continued into the penalty shootout.
Nigeria’s Calvin Bassey and Moses Simon missed early chances, while Nwabali denied DR Congo’s first penalty.
Akor Adams kept the Super Eagles alive, but DR Congo struck back through Sadique and later scored the decisive fourth penalty, leaving Nigeria trailing 4–3 in the shootout.
The victory sets up DR Congo for a chance to secure one of the final World Cup tickets to the expanded 48-team tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Nigeria’s defeat marked the second consecutive year the Super Eagles will miss out on the world stage.
Both teams had earned their places in the final after dramatic semi-finals.
Nigeria had booked their place in the final with a dramatic 4–1 extra-time win over Gabon in Thursday’s semi-final at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium.
DR Congo also advanced with a 1–0 victory over Cameroon at the Al Barid Stadium the same evening.
The Leopards now await their intercontinental playoff opponent, keeping alive their hopes of reaching the 2026 World Cup, while the Super Eagles’ campaign comes to an agonising end in Rabat.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expelled Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, its suspended National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.
Their expulsion was announced on Saturday at the party’s National Convention in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has insisted that there is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria, hence demanding end to the alleged Christian killings.
Speaking on Thursday after an emergency executive meeting of the Fellowship held at its national headquarters in Lagos, PFN President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, said the body would no longer remain silent while Christians are “targeted, killed, raped, and displaced” across the country.
He said: “There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria. If we call it by any other name, it will bring Nigeria down. We are crying out to our international friends, beginning with America and Donald Trump. Whatever you can do to help our government put an end to it, come quickly and get it done. When on Christmas Day, Christmas Day was turned a bloody day in Benue State, and hundreds were massacred. And we are to be conducting mass funerals when we are not in open conflict. What do you call that? And this is different from individual cases.
“Let us call a spade a spade. There is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria,”Bishop Oke declared.
“Even while we speak, killings are still taking place in Borno, Plateau, and Benue states. When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogon Noma in Plateau, what do we call that? When Christmas Day turned into a bloody day in Benue, with hundreds massacred, what name should we give it?
While noting that the United States President Donald Trump spoke the truth, the PRN President cited the case of Leah Sharibu who was abducted alongside other Chibok girls and has since remained in captivity.
“Like the case of Leah Sharibu. Where is Leah Sharibu? Like the case of Deborah that was lynched and burned alive in Sokoto? What about that? And several of our girls were kidnapped and forced, given out as wives by force without the consent of their parents and their Christian parents. And the Christian parents would not see them for years.And this has been going on. We have been talking and we are not taking it seriously. And it has been going on again and again, until Donald Trump now spoke. And Donald Trump spoke the truth. There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria.
“Like you will have picked in the news, even since this narrative began, killing was still going on in Borno, in Plateau, in Benue, up until yesterday. What are we saying? When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogonaya in Plateau State, what do we call that? And for no offense other than they are Christians.”
Oke recalled that the Christian community had repeatedly called the attention of the government to the alleged genocide with no decisive action from the authority.
The cleric expressed his backing for President Trump’s intervention, adding that Trump only echoed what Nigerian Christians had been saying for year
“I was part of the team that went to see the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari. We spoke very strongly about this and the President listened to us, but he completely ignored the main issue we came for, If we came and spoke with such vehemence, with such passion, and then you pick the peripheral matter and left this matter alone, I knew that day that his government was complicit in what was going on,” he added.
Oke alleged that the killings across parts of Nigeria were systematic and targeted on Christians, lamenting that the killings had continued unchecked despite repeated appeals from the Church.
“The evidence is all over the place. There is nothing anybody can say that can whitewash it. It is evil, it is blood shedding, it is mass murder and it is genocide. The time to stop it is now. That is what the church in Nigeria is saying with one voice.
“Christians in this nation must be free to practice their faith in any part of Nigeria as bona fide citizens of Nigeria.
“These armed bandits, Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, ISWAP, all of them using Islam as a cover. We have been living in peace with our Muslim brothers for a long, until this violent Islamic sect came up with an intent to make sure they impose Sharia on all Nigerians,” Oke said.
Bishop Oke called on President Bola Tinubu to decisively overhaul the nation’s security architecture, and ensure justice for victims of religious violence. He questioned why those responsible for notorious attacks—such as the killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto and the abduction of Leah Sharibu and the Chibok schoolgirls—remain unpunished.
“The government should prove by action, not words, that it is not complicit,” he said. “When hundreds are buried in mass graves and the whole world sees it, who can deny it? Why should we play politics with the blood of Nigerians?”
The PFN urged President Tinubu’s administration to rebuild trust by ensuring that the security architecture of the country is not infiltrated by those sympathetic to extremist ideologies.
Oke further condemned the government’s rehabilitation of so-called “repentant terrorists,” describing the move as a grave security.
He assured Christians that the PFN would continue to speak out until the killings stop. “We are not going to keep quiet. We will keep raising our voices until justice is done and every Nigerian, regardless of faith, can live in peace. The truth may be suppressed for a time, but it cannot be buried forever,” he said.
The meeting, which drew PFN leaders from across the country, reaffirmed the body’s commitment to national unity, peace, and the protection of fundamental human rights, while urging the media to “side with the oppressed” and report the truth without fear or bias.
