Even as several Nigerians call for a forensic probe of the Nigerian judiciary, the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Umar  Bangari, on Wednesday, said there was no contradiction in the court’s judgment on the Kano State governorship election.

According to him, what happened in the judgment’s Certified True Copy was a clerical error, which he described as minor.

He however, noted that it does not in any way invalidate or change the findings and conclusion of the court on the matter as read in the open court.

He disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

However, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and rights crusader, Femi Falana, SAN, stated that despite the general belief that the Kano State Gubernatorial Election Petitions Tribunal, which sat at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, nullified the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, the majority judgement of the Court upheld Abba’s appeal and granted all the reliefs sought by the governor.

Speaking Tuesday night on Arise News Primetime, Falana said he was surprised when he read a copy of the judgement, to see that the majority judgement set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal and even awarded costs in favour of the governor.

He said: “You will be surprised if I show you the judgement. To my utter dismay the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal in Kano upheld the Appeal, set aside the judgement of the lower court and awarded cost in favour of the governor that was removed by the lower Tribunal. 

“There are contradictions which the court can no longer explain, but which is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court”.

Falana described the development as “scandalous to the integrity of the judiciary”. 

He also faulted the decision of the court to punish millions of voters for the mistake committed by INEC officials.

In another development, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu in a tweet stated: “When we say the judiciary in #Nigeria is crooked, ppl wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in Kano governorship case resolved all the issues “In favour of the appellant and against the 1st Respondent. Yet it found the appeal lacking in merit and liable to be dismissed. Explain!”

The Certified True Copy of the judgment, which was made public on Tuesday, contradicted what was read at the Court of Appeal Court last Friday.

During Arise TV’s The Morning Show, on Wednesday , the spokesperson for the NNPP, Chief Ladipo Johnson, said the matter would ultimately be resolved at the Supreme Court.

“It is very unfortunate that we have come to this low state as a country regarding the judiciary. 

“I am a legal practitioner, and it hurts me; it pains the heart that this is the sort of situation that we find ourselves in.

“You just have a 14-day window to lodge your appeal at the Supreme Court, so when you deliver judgment on Friday and you don’t give the CTC to counsel till some five days later, it really makes no sense,” Johnson said.

Verdict of the court as read in the open court last Friday showed that the Appeal Court upheld the decision of the petitions tribunal sacking Governor Yusuf.

However, confusion arose on Tuesday when the CTC of the Appeal Court judgment surfaced, four days after the judgment had been delivered, bearing different conclusions and awarding N1 million costs against the APC in favour of the appelant, NNPP.

The NNPP spokesperson lamented, saying: “How is it that in the CTC signed by the judges, you have that conclusion? Were they two different judgments typed? 

“Leave the facts and the law to the Supreme Court; what we are saying is that the optics are bad, and you cannot stop anyone from saying they have no confidence in the judiciary.

“When the Court of Appeal comes out with that, you begin to know that in this modern day of computer produced document, something must have been there. 

“Was it cancelled? Was part of it removed? Are they going to tell us it’s a clerical error? 

“There is something called a slip rule in law where you can recall your judgment if there is a small error. This is not a small error.

“The Court of Appeal must let Nigerians know how that happened and how they couldn’t get us a CTC for about four days.”

Below are the last five contradictory paragraphs of the CTC:

“In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the appellant (Abba Yusuf) and against the first respondent (APC).

“I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1st respondent (APC) and against the appellant (Governor Abba Yusuf).

“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal (which was filed by Yusuf) which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed.

“The judgment of the tribunal in Petition No.: EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between: AL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) v. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC) & 2 ORS. delivered on the 20th day of September, 2023 is hereby set aside.”

“The sum of N1,000,000.00 (one million naira only) is hereby awarded as costs in favour of the appellant(Abba Yusuf) and against the 1st respondent(APC).”