On Friday, the Supreme Court recognized Senator Rufa’i Hanga as the New Nigerian Peoples Party’s candidate for the general election in 2023 and sacked Senator Ibrahim Shekarau as the party’s candidate.
According to our reports, the NNPP declared Shekarau the winner of the 2023 election for the Kano Central Senatorial District.
Shekarau, a current senator, was nominated to compete for the senatorial position under the NNPP’s platform.
However, prior to the elections, he announced his departure from the NNPP and his decision to join the Peoples Democratic Party instead of running for senator.
Yet, the Free Public Electing Commission later demanded that it actually remembered him as the authentic NNPP up-and-comer, despite the fact that the party supplanted him with Hanga.
Professor Tijjani Darma, the senatorial district’s returning officer, declared Shekarau, who will represent the district in the red chamber for the second time.
Alhaji Abdulkarim Zaura, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress, was defeated by Shekarau, who received 456,787 votes, according to INEC.
However, the nomination of Hanga as the genuine candidate of the NNPP was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday.
The five-member panel of the court, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, criticized INEC for failing to bring in Hanga to replace Shekarau, who had left the party for the PDP prior to the election.
The INEC appeal was denied when Justice Emmanuel Agim read the lead judgment, which was written by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji.
However, the court upheld the two concurrent judgments of the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal, both of which were issued in Abuja, confirming Hanga as the genuine NNPP candidate.