The Northern Young Lawyers Forum, a group recruited from the region’s 19 states, has challenged the recent Court of Appeal decision that ousted Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The lawyers called the clerical error in the five paragraphs of the Certified True Copy of the appellate court ruling as an unforgivable error that has already cast doubt on the courts.
Yusuf Ibrahim, spokesman for the Northern Young Lawyers Forum, said at a press conference in Kaduna on Sunday that the Kano governorship election verdict amounted to a clear miscarriage of justice and, more importantly, a usurpation of the political will and rights of Kano State citizens who voluntarily voted for Governor Yusuf.
The forum, therefore, volunteered as private legal practitioners in solidarity with Governor Yusuf in pursuing his appeal to the Supreme Court, while also expressing optimism that the apex court will do justice by affirming him as the duly elected governor of Kano state.
“It is not part of our rights to bring their judicial responsibilities to disrepute, but it is well within our rights to critique the findings and submissions of the learned trial justices where necessary,” Ibrahim said.
“The judicial system now is being made a caricature of itself and of our existence as a people. Almost every judgement or decision will be replete with traces of unimaginable conclusions. Truth be told, you are no longer sure of the outcome of court decisions in this country, even if you are a legal practitioner, no matter how knowledgeable you may be.”
Commenting on the plethora of cases and judicial decisions in recent time and their negative effects on the nation’s democratic process, a member of the forum, Usman Ashafa advocated the urgent need for a holistic reworking of the current Electoral Act to address the anomalies in the judiciary and electoral institutions.
In seeking the reworking of the current Electoral Act, the forum hopes that going forward, pre-election matters must be seen to be addressed as no longer litigable issues after the winner of an election has been declared.