We Await Supreme Court Judgement On Shekarau, Says NNPP

National Chairman of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) Prof Rufai Ahmed Alkali has said that the party was waiting for the judgement of the Supreme Court on the senatorial ticket for Kano Central.

He expressed confidence that the party will reclaim the mandate from former Kano Governor, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau.

Alkali told The Nation the apex court is scheduled to deliver judgment on an appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday this week.

Shekarau won election to the Senate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) defected to the NNPP and was given the senatorial ticket for the party.

Alkali said Shekarau resigned from the party and withdrew his senatorial ambition on the platform of the party just when the window substitution had closed, but INEC refused to accept the new candidate presented by the party for the election.

“INEC said there are two conditions resignation and death. They said since the window had closed for substitution, death is the only condition for substitution.

” We went to the lower court and got judgement in our favour. But rather than implement the court judgement, INEC went to the Court of Appeal and again, we won. They went to the Supreme Court again. We are expecting the Supreme Court judgement on Friday.

“However, our Kano state office has gone to court to ask for relief stopping Shekarau from accepting the Certificate of Return. I guess that is why he was not there to receive it yesterday.

“The party is the one that is voted for and not the individual. So, we expect justice to be done,” he said.