20th September, 2023
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Kano has nullified the election of Abba Yusuf as the governor of Kano State.
In a virtual ruling today the tribunal declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC ), Nasir Yusuf Gawuna as the winner of the 18 March election.
Abba Yusuf ran on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
Nasir Yusuf Gawuna was the deputy governor of the state up till 29 May 2023.
The ruling came weeks after lawyers of both parties made their closing arguments on behalf of their clients on 21 August.
In the electoral battle of the Yusufs, NNPP’s Yusuf was declared by INEC to have polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat APC’s Yusuf who scored 890,705 votes.
The APC, which sponsored Gawuna challenged the verdict.
Today, the three-man tribunal, headed by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay declared that 165,663 votes counted for NNPP’s Yusuf were invalid, because they were not stamped and signed.
It thus deducted the figure from Yusuf’s total, making the APC candidate the winner.
The tribunal thus ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return given to Abba Yusuf and issue a new certificate of return to Gawuna.