The Kano State Governorship Electoral Petition Tribunal on Wednesday sacked Kano state governor and candidate of the New Nigeria’s People Party (NNPP), Abba Kabiru Yusuf, and declared Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the March 18, Kano governorship election.

The tribunal came to its verdict after cancelling some votes recorded by the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, candidate and Kano Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf. The court deducted 165,663 votes from Abba Kabiru Yusuf as invalid, stating that the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Abba Kabiru Yusuf the winner of the governor’s race after he polled 1,019,602 votes, defeating the APC and Nasir Gawuna, who received 890,705 votes. The NNPP candidate thus won with a margin of 128,897 votes.

There are, however, two more stages to pass through before the matter could be finally laid to rest. Lawyers to the Governor have indicated their intention to proceed to the Court of Appeal to reverse the judgement of the Tribunal.

Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, the APC approached the electoral tribunal to challenge the victory of the NNPP candidate. He also asked the court to nullify Alhaji Yusuf’s victory and declare the candidate of the APC as the winner of the poll.

APC’s Gawuna won all the three grounds presented before the tribunal which include over voting, invalid votes and not being a member of the party as at the time of the NNPP primary election. The APC candidate noted that the NNPP governorship candidate was not a registered member of his party before the election. He also told the tribunal that he received the most votes and requested that the gubernatorial election be declared inconclusive.

The three-person panel presided over by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay decided in favour of the candidate for the All Progressives Congress after hearing the legal counsel for the two candidates who had presented their closing arguments on August 21st.

The Tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to retrieve the Certificate of Return issued to Yusuf and give same to Gawuna as the original winner of the election.

She declared that the position of the law states that one most be a bonafide member of a political party before he was allowed to contest an elections, while in the case of Abba Kabir Yusuf he wasn’t a member of NNPP 30 stipulated dates before the conduct of the general elections.

Delivering the judgement virtually via Zoom, a teleconference service, as the panel members were not physically in court, the tribunal deducted 165,663 votes from the NNPP candidates as invalid votes, noting that the ballot papers were not stamped or signed by the Independent National Electoral Commission.