The Court of Appeal has clarified the situation surrounding controversy surrounding the judgement delivered by the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court on the Kano State governorship election dispute.
The Chief Registrar of the Court, Umar Bangari, told journalists in Abuja on Wednesday that the controversy was the result of a clerical error.
A portion of the certified true copy of the judgment which read “I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favor of the 1st respondent and against the appellant.”
“In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favor of the appellant and against the 1st respondent.
“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed”.
This led Yusuf and his New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to claim that it validated their victory in the 18 March gubernatorial contest.
The Appeal Court regustrar, however, said that was untrue.
“What happened in the judgment copy was a clerical error that did not in any way invalidate or change the findings and conclusion of the Court," Bangari said.
“The clerical error will be rectified once parties in the matter file formal application to that effect."
He drew the journalists' attention 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, the judgment of the court remains valid.
“The court is empowered to correct such clerical error and would be done as appropriate,” he said .
