Recall that Yusuf was sacked yesterday, four months after he was inaugurated as governor of the state.
Details have emerged why the Kano Election Petition Tribunal sacked Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano state.
Recall that Yusuf was sacked yesterday, four months after he was inaugurated as governor of the state.
The three-man Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, declared Nasiru Gawuna, candidate of the APC, winner of the March 18 poll after voiding 165,663 belonging to the New Nigeria Peoples Party.
The court ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return earlier presented to Yusuf, who ran on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and issue a new certificate to Gawuna.
Gawuna was deputy governor under former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who is now the national chairman of the APC. Ganduje hailed the judgment as “God’s will.”
But the NNPP rejected the verdict, describing it as a miscarriage of justice. It vowed to head for the Court of Appeal.
The verdict was transmitted virtually via Zoom.
The tribunal deducted 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s total votes and declared them as “invalid votes.” It said that it was satisfied that the ballot papers of the affected votes were not stamped or signed.
INEC had declared that Yusuf scored 1,019,602 votes against Gawuna’s 809,705 votes.
Delivering a seven-hour judgment, the judge said the petitioner had proved the allegation of invalidity of some of the votes and non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The tribunal ruled that the invalid votes wrongly credited to Yusuf were expunged from those counted and added to the petitioner.
It then recounted the votes, after which Gawuna emerged with a majority of valid votes.
The court consequently declared Gawuna the winner of the poll, saying he had satisfied the provision of the law.
Also, the tribunal ruled that party membership was a constitutional matter, stressing that Yusuf never followed the laid down rules to become a member of the NNPP.
Hailing the verdict, APC said owners of demolished buildings will be compensated.
The state chairman, Abdullahi Abbas, said the judgment was God’s answer to the cry of the masses.
He recalled that he led thousands of APC supporters to pray at Kofar Mata Eid Ground, the site of one of the multibillion-naira shopping complexes pulled down by the NNPP administration.
Abbas said: “The prayer session was to thank the Almighty Allah for the party’s victory at the Kano State Governorship Election Tribunal, which returned our candidate, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18, 2023, election.”
He added: “Beloved Kano people, we are back to correct the wrongs and the imperial tendencies meted out on you. Be assured that things will return to normalcy and your businesses will boom again.
“We are going to return all demolished shops to those who were victimised, whose hard-earned wealth was destroyed. This is a promise, and we will certainly fulfil it.
“Kano, a commercial nerve centre of Northern Nigeria, has been relegated to the background in the few days of the illegal NNPP government. With the APC back in the saddle, sanity will be restored.”
However, until the final determination of the matter, at the final court, the Kano State Governor is constitutionally allowed to remain an officer.