4 days after, Appeal Court yet to release CTC of Kano judgment, NNPP cries out

By OUR REPORTER

“We are using this medium to call on the bench and well meaning Nigerians to impress on the Appeal Court to, as a matter of urgency, release the CTC of the judgment of the Appeal Court in the Kano State Governorship petition which was delivered on Friday, November 17, 2023, to the NNPP team to enable them prepare their processes for filing of Appeal at the Supreme Court.”

It has been said that the Court of Appeal in Abuja, four days now after its Friday judgment sacking the Governor of Kano State, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s candidate Yusuf Nasiru Gawuna, has not released the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment for the dissatisfied party going to Supreme Court of Nigeria to use.

This was brought to the notice of the Nigerian Press on Monday through a press statement issued by Acting National Chairman of the NNPP, Alhaji Abba Kawu Ali, copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER.

The statement said, “The leadership of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) is using this medium to register its worries over the inability of Court of Appeal to release the Certified  True Copy (CTC) of the Kano judgment delivered by the  Court of Appeal on Friday, November 17, 2023 to its legal team.

“This concern being expressed by the leadership of NNPP stems from the report from our Legal team that all efforts to collect the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement  which will aid the process of filing  their appeal have not yielded any fruits, four days after the judgement was delivered in Abuja.

“It is a known fact that the issues of days and time are very germane in the preparation of processes for an appeal in such a situation.

“For the purpose of emphasis, it is an established fact that an Appealant only has a window of Fourteen (14) days to get his/her processes completed, and frittering away 4 days out of these 14 days is like setting a booby trap for the Appellant.

“Unfortunately, this type of scenario is creating the belief (rightly or wrongly) that there are deliberate efforts in place to frustrate the Party,  and the Governor of Kano State, His Excellency, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, as well as the legal  team  in their quest to get justice in the Kano State Governorship petition as they head for the Supreme Court.

“It would be recalled that the NNPP had suffered different setbacks in the past. One example which readily comes to mind was the unnecessary confusion after the ruling of the Kano State Tribunal when a wrong signal was sent out that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has withdrawn from the appeal. This was designed to create confusion in the camp of NNPP towards the Appeal Court proceedings.

“There are also several cases of injustice suffered by the party, even in the run-up to the 2023 General election.

“We are using this medium to call on the bench and well meaning Nigerians to impress on the Appeal Court to, as a matter of urgency, release the CTC of the judgment of the Appeal Court in the Kano State Governorship petition which was delivered on Friday, November 17, 2023, to the NNPP team to enable them prepare their processes for filing of Appeal at the Supreme Court.

“We wish to use this medium to reiterate our belief in the judiciary as the last hope of the common man and it is for this reason that the party is heading to the Supreme Court to get justice, especially, for the masses of Kano State, who freely gave their mandate to the NNPP and in particular, His Excellency, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf in the March 18, 2023 Governorship election.

“NNPP is a peaceful party and will continue to operate the confines of the law to get its mandate restored at the Supreme Court,” the party’s National Chairman said.