Tribunal sacks NNPP’s Abba Kabir, declares APC’s Gawuna as Kano Governor

Delivering judgement, the three-man panel, led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, held that the margin of votes scored by NNPP was invalid and was not conducted in compliance with the 2022 electoral act.

The tribunal declared Nasiru Yusuf-Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the March 18 governorship 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.

But on Wednesday, the three-man panel, after hearing the petitions, ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of return which INEC presented to Yusuf and directed a certificate of return to be issued to Gawuna.

The court 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 comes 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 had 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.