TheCable

A group known as Stand Up Nigeria (SUN) says the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) should prepare for another election in Kano state in the next four years.

On September 20, the Kano governorship election petitions tribunal sacked Abba Yusuf of the NNPP as governor of the state and declared Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the poll.

The tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Yusuf.

The governor is appealing the verdict of the tribunal.

In a statement on Saturday, Sunday Attah, the group’s national coordinator, said the NNPP should not “intimidate” the judiciary because of the outcome of the election.

“You don’t have to intimidate the judiciary or cause war because you lost an election. The tenure is four years after which fresh elections would be conducted,” Attah said.

“You may prepare yourself to contest again instead of sponsoring people to blackmail highly respected justices of the election petition tribunal and intimidate the appeal court judges all in a bid to reverse a sound judgment already delivered.

“We understand that Kano has an international market which makes it a home to all Nigerians irrespective of religion and tribe.”

The coordinator said NNPP must openly retract a statement by Adamu Aliyu, now sacked commissioner for land in Kano, who threatened judges.

“Here is a man ordinarily referred to as an honourable commissioner, so, where is the honourable? It shows how deep the NNPP must have gone in terms of intimidation of judicial officers in secret before it was made public,” he said.

“We believe that the intimidation and threat being mounted are targeted towards the appeal court judges in order to bully them.”