Court of Appeal Nullifies the Election of Kano State Governor

The court of Appeal has nullified the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State in its sitting in Abuja on Friday.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that Governor Yusuf was not a valid candidate in the gubernatorial election held in the state on March 18.

The decision of the court led by a three-member panel of justices, declared that Governor Yusuf was not a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NPPP, at the time the election was held.

. A person must be a member of a political party before he can be sponsored for an election. The court further pointed out that a person must be a legit member of a political party before election sponsorship can be made available of Him.

“Sponsorship without membership like putting something on nothing. The court held in its judgement that was delivered justice M.U Adumeh.

Consequently, the appellate court upheld the earlier judgement of the Kano state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which nullified Governor Yusuf’s election.

It will be recalled that the tribunal had in a virtual judgement it delivered on September 20, sacked governor Yusuf of the NNPP, from office and declared Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressive Congress, APC, as the valid winner of the governorship poll held in the state on March 18.

The three-member panel tribunal, led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, held that some ballot papers that were relied upon to declare Yusuf as the winner of the gubernatorial contest, were neither signed nor stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

It proceeded to declare 165,663 of the votes that were credited to the NNPP candidate as invalid.

Following the deduction of the said invalid votes, Yusuf, who was initially declared winner of the governorship poll with a total of 1,019,602 votes, had his tally reduced to 853, 939 votes.

With the development, his closest rival and candidate of the APC, Ganuwa, emerged as the winner of the election with 890,705 votes. Dissatisfied with the judgement, Governor Yusuf approached the appellate court to set it aside, even as he accused the tribunal of misapplying the law.

Source: Vanguard