The Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Umar Mohammed Bangari, has shed light on the controversy surrounding the judgement delivered by the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court on the Kano State governorship election dispute.
The Registrar, in a reaction to the controversy on the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement of the Appellate Court, said the discrepancy was a mere clerical error that did not in anyway invalidate or change the findings and conclusion of the Court.
He assured that the clerical error would be rectified once parties in the matter file formal application to that effect.
He drew the attention of journalists to Order 23, Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal Handbook, which empowers the court to correct any clerical error once detected by the court or any of the parties in a matter.
He, however, insisted that contrary to insinuations of ambiguity, the judgement of the court as pronounced by the panel of Justices of the court on the Kano State governorship poll remains valid.
“What happened in the part of the judgement is just a mere clerical error that ought not to draw any issue. The Court is empowered to correct such clerical error and would be done as appropriate,” he stated.
LEADERSHIP reports that the Kano State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Haruna Isah Dederi, had on Tuesday told journalists in Kano that the CTC of the Appeal Court judgement given to them affirmed the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf contrary to the pronouncement of Justices of the Court of Appeal.
Since then, there had been misgivings and series of interpretations into the judgement of the Appellate which upheld the earlier judgement of the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which invalidated the election of Governor Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial poll in the state.
