September 20, (THEWILL) – The Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, on Wednesday, sacked Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nasiru Gawuna, winner of the March 18 governorship poll.
Reading of the judgement was transmitted virtually via Zoom, a teleconference service, as the panel members were not physically in court. The ruling came weeks after lawyers of both parties made their closing arguments on behalf of their clients on August 21.
THEWILL recalls that INEC had declared that the NNPP polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat the APC and its candidate, Nasir Gawuna, who scored 890,705 votes. The NNPP candidate thus won with a margin of 128,897 votes.
The APC filed a petition at the tribunal to challenge the results declared by the electoral body.
The three-man panel, on Wednesday, ordered the withdrawal of 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 as invalid, stating that the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped or signed and, therefore, declared invalid.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
