Former presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad has reacted to the controversy trailing the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Court of Appeal judgment delivered on the Kano State governorship election.
The appellate court sacked the Kano State Governor and candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Abba Kabir Yusuf, in its judgment delivered on Friday.
However, in the CTC of the judgment released by the court on Tuesday, several pronouncements in the judgment appeared to be contradictory.
In the CTC, most of the rulings were in favour of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, who was the appellant in the appeal, while the 1st respondent was the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the NNPP as 2nd and 3rd respondents.
Reacting to the development in an X post on Wednesday morning, Ahmad said if the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) believes that the copy of the judgment that has been circulating online is correct, then its leadership shouldn’t bother to appeal the ruling.
He said the seeming confusion in the CTC judgment of the Court of Appeal is no more than a slip, saying that Court judgments are not immune from slips, errors and mistakes.
Ahmad asked Yusuf’s camp to rather invest their energy in the substance and leave issues of the appeal, than bother needlessly about slips which could be cured and corrected.
He wrote: “If the NNPP believes that the copy of the judgment that has been circulating on various WhatsApp groups is indeed the accurate version, then the party shouldn’t bother to appeal the ruling.
“It is important to note that if the NNPP does not file an appeal within the two-week window following the Court of Appeal judgment, Dr. Nasir Gawuna will be promptly sworn in as the executive governor of Kano state.
“At the risk of dashing peoples’ hope, I’d like to point that the seeming confusion in the certified true copy of this judgment of the Court of Appeal is no more than a slip. Court judgments are not immune from slips, errors and mistakes. That’s why in law, we have the “Slip Rule” which allow courts to correct slip and genuine mistakes.
“Without factual basis indicating otherwise, this in my view could pass as a slip since every other part of the judgment is clear that AKY’s appeal has failed. Documents are not read in isolation. We cannot pick and choose.
“AKY’s camp should rather invest their energy in the substance and live issues of the appeal than bother needlessly about slips which could be cured and corrected suo motu by the Supreme Court. – Barr. Abba Hikima, a diehard supporter of Gov. Abba K. Yusuf and the NNPP.”