Court of Appeal, in Abuja, upholds Tribunal’s zoom ruling, sacks Kano Gov Yusuf
By OUR REPORTER
The Appeal Court, in Abuja, has nullified the election of Kano State Governor, Engr Abba Kabir Yusuf, upholding the judgment of the state’s governorship election petitions tribunal that was delivered via zoom, recently.
It will be recalled that the Tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Osadebay, had on September 20, 2023 declared Yusuf’s 165,663 votes as invalid, while declaring the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Yusuf Nasiru Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18 election.
In its judgment on Friday, the Appeal Court agreed with the judgment of the tribunal, ruling that the fielding of Abba Yusuf was in breach of the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest that election.
Yusuf, who contested on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the poll in March.
The tribunal deducted 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s total as invalid votes, stating that the affected ballot papers were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.
The ruling came about six months after the APC candidate conceded defeat to Yusuf in the wake of INEC’s presentation of the certificate of return to the NNPP candidate.
In a two-minute audio statement on March 29, Gawuna stated that “as a good Muslim”, he was compelled to accept the outcome of the election, whether in his favour or not.
He added that although his campaign team had requested a review of the election results by INEC, upon review, the commission had found Yusuf to be the winner of the election.
