The Supreme Court has approved Rufai Hanga’s nomination as the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s (NNPP) candidate for the Kano central senatorial district.

The supreme court dismissed Ibrahim Shekarau, a former governor of Kano who had been nominated by the NNPP and pronounced the election’s victor.

The former governor declared his departure from the NNPP and decision to give up his bid for the Senate in order to join the Peoples Democratic Party prior to the election.

Even when the NNPP replaced him with Hanga, the Independent National Electoral Commission stated that it still recognised him as the rightful candidate.

Reeling figures from the election, INEC said Shekarau polled 456,787 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress candidate, Alhaji Abdulkarim Zaura, who polled 168,677 votes.

Ruling on the case on Friday, March 10, the Supreme Court affirmed the nomination of Hanga as the NNPP’s authentic candidate.

In a unanimous judgement, Justice Inyang Okoro-led five-member panel of the court faulted INEC’s refusal to replace Shekarau with Hanga after the former left the party for PDP before the election.

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