Supreme Court upholds Ganduje’s election

Tension over the governorship tussle in Kano state has been put to rest as the Supreme Court upheld the election of Abdullahi Ganduje on Monday.

The apex court upheld Ganduje’s victory after a seven-man panel of Justices that was led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad, dismissed an appeal filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abba Yusuf.

Yusuf had in his appeal marked SC/1450/2019, prayed the Supreme Court to set aside the concurrent decision of both the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which affirmed Ganduje’s re-election.

In the notice of appeal he filed on November 30, he stated that he scored the highest votes at the governorship contest that held on March 9, 2019, and satisfied section 179 (2) (a) and (b) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

Yusuf also alleged that the Kano State Returning Officer had cancelled results in 207 polling units in the state, declared the election as inconclusive and scheduled a re-run election for March 23, 2019, after results of 44 Local Government Areas were declared.

However, in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta on Monday, the apex court said it saw no reason to dislodge the judgements of the two lower courts.

The apex court held that the facts presented by the PDP candidate were inconsistent with the sole ground of his appeal, adding that he failed to demonstrate that judgements of the two lower courts were perverse.