A Federal High Court in Kano has disqualified all 44 New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) chairmanship and councillorship candidates from participating in the local government elections on Saturday.
The decision was handed down on Friday by Justice Simon Amobeda in response to a lawsuit filed by Engineer Muhammad Babayo and a faction within the NNPP challenging the party’s leadership.
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Justice Amobeda directed the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) to accept a revised list of candidates submitted by the faction led by Dalhatu Shehu Usman, the party’s recognized State Chairman, as specified in the NNPP’s constitution.
In his ruling, Justice Amobeda declared: “The defendant is hereby restrained from releasing the voters register for the 2nd Defendant to conduct the proposed election on 26th October 2024.”
He further instructed KANSIEC to acknowledge the candidates submitted by the plaintiffs as the legitimate contenders.
The case also named the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), KANSIEC, the Inspector General of Police, and the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) as defendants.
Justice Amobeda ordered that the second defendant, KANSIEC, should treat the list submitted by Usman’s faction as the “genuine and subsisting” list for the 2024 election, stating, “The 2nd Defendant is hereby directed to accept as genuine and subsisting the list of NNPP candidates submitted to it by the recognized State Chairman, Dalhatu Shehu Usman,” while directing that “any other list submitted for the 2024 Local Government Election in Kano State should be rejected.”
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Additionally, the court restrained the Inspector General of Police and the DSS from providing security if the elections proceed without the corrected candidate list.
Justice Amobeda ruled, “That the 3rd and 4th Defendants are forthwith restrained from providing security and protection to the scene of the Election plans to take place on the 26th October, 2024.”
