The Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday sacked Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf from office and declared Nasiru Gawuna, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18.
The announcement of the judgment was conducted virtually through the Zoom teleconference service, as the tribunal members were not physically present in the courtroom.
This ruling followed weeks of legal proceedings, during which lawyers representing both parties presented their closing arguments on August 21.
As a reminder, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had initially declared that the National Network for Progressive Patriots (NNPP) candidate had secured victory with 1,019,602 votes, defeating the APC candidate Nasir Gawuna, who received 890,705 votes. The NNPP candidate had a margin of 128,897 votes.
However, the APC filed a petition with the tribunal to contest the election results declared by INEC. Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, who had contested on the NNPP platform, was initially declared the winner by INEC, but the APC challenged this outcome in court.
In its decision on Wednesday, the three-member tribunal ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of return that INEC had presented to Governor Yusuf and directed that a certificate of return be issued to Nasiru Gawuna. The tribunal also ruled that 165,663 votes be deducted from Governor Yusuf’s total, deeming them invalid due to the absence of stamping or signing on the corresponding ballot papers, thus rendering them invalid.
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