Appeal Court Reverses Fed. High Court Order Nullifying Kano Council Polls

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

A special panel of the Court of Appeal Sitting in Abuja, on Friday, May 30, 2025, set aside an  earlier judgment by a Federal High Court which voided the composition of the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission KANSIEC, and the subsequent Local Council polls which it conducted on October 26, 2024.

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano, presided over by Justice Simon Amobeda had on October 22, 2024, ruled to restrain KANSIEC from going ahead with the conduct of the Local Council Elections on the grounds that its composition was illegal.

Delivering judgment in a motion on notice  filed by Aminu Tiga and 14 other members of   the Kano State chapter of the All Progressive Congress, APC, challenging the composition of the State’s Electoral Body, and its preparations for the Council polls, Justice Amobeda held that a larger part of KANSEIC members, including its Chairman Prof Sani Malunfashi ,were not qualified to be appointed to their various  positions going by the provisions of all extant  laws, rules and regulations.

Consequently, he declared all actions taken by the electoral body towards the conduct of the Council Election, including the screening and shortlisting of political party aspirants/candidates for the said election null and void.

Justice Amobeda ,also, ordered the KANIESC, or its privies to halt any further actions regarding the conduct of the Council Polls.

But dissatisfied with the Federal High Court ruling, the Kano State Government approached the Appellate Court seeking a reversal.

The ensuing legal tussle was to culminate in about five cases instituted by both parties, a development which forced the Appeal Court to consolidate them.

The Kano State Government, KANSIEC and the State House of Assembly had jointly and severally in their various appeals  prayed the Appeal Court to upturn the verdict of the Lower Court on the  grounds that  it lacked the jurisdiction to hear  the matter.

Specifically, they had argued that going by the provisions of extant laws of the land, all matters relating to Local Council Polls are exclusive to the State and State High Courts.

According to them, the Federal High Court in Kano overreached itself by accepting to adjudicate on Local Government issues.

In a unanimous verdict, the three-member Appeal Court Panel led by Justice Biobele Abraham   Georgewill sustained the appeal by the Kano State Government.

The Court agreed with the position of the appellants that the Federal Court, was wrong to have assumed jurisdiction over matters relating to Local Council Polls.

The Appeal Court  held that only a State High Court can adjudicate on matters of disagreements arising from issues related to Local Government and Local Council Polls.

Consequently, the Court allowed the three appeals filed by the Kano State Government, KANSIEC, the Kano State Attorney General and the Kano State House of Assembly.

In the same vein, the Appellate Court, also, upturned another Judgment by the same Federal High Court which nullified the list of candidates as submitted to the electoral body by a faction of the New Nigeria Peoples Party  NNPP loyal to its 2023 Presidential candidate  for the said October 26 ,2024 Council polls.

Justice Amobeda of the Kano Federal High Court had, during the same period, ruled to uphold the application by the Aniegbonam faction of the NNPP seeking the rejection of the party’s list of candidates as submitted by Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s group.

The Court of Appeal in its verdict, however, held that the matter under  dispute is not justiciable as it falls completely under the internal affairs of the party.