The Supreme Court in Nigeria on Friday has sacked Senator Ibrahim Shekarau as the senator elected to represent Kano Central Senatorial District.
The court ruled in favour of Rufai Hanga as the official Senator-Elect under the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
As a result of this ruling, incumbent Senator Shekarau was removed from office.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, in a unanimous judgement faulted the refusal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to replace Senator Shekarau with Hanga after the former Kano State governor left the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the 2023 election.
According to INEC, Shekarau polled 456,787 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Alhaji Abdulkarim Zaura, who polled 168,677 votes in the February 25 election.
The Supreme Court upheld the two earlier concurrent judgments by the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal, both in Abuja, which affirmed Hanga as the genuine candidate of the NNPP.
67-year-old Shekarau is a former Nigerian minister of education and two-term Governor of Kano State. He was elected in April 2003 and reelected in April 2007.