Court Of Appeal Hears Kano Governorship Election Case Today

Gov Abba Kabir Yusuf

The Court of Appeal, Kano Division, will today, November 6, 2023, hear the appeal filed by Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, challenging the judgment of the Election Petitions Tribunal, which nullified his victory.

A notice made available to the parties involved in the case over the weekend stated that the suit with case number CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023 will be heard on Monday at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

Parties in the suit include Governor Yusuf and his party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as well as Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It would be recalled that the tribunal had ruled in favour of the APC when it declared its candidate, Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.

The tribunal nullified the election of Governor Yusuf by declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid, saying they were not signed or stamped by INEC.

INEC had declared Yusuf as the winner of the governorship election after he secured 1,019,602 votes against Gawuna, who secured 890,705 votes.

However, after the tribunal deducted the 165,663 votes from Yusuf, his votes were reduced to 853,939, which were over 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Gawuna.

Consequently, the court declared the APC candidate as the winner of the governorship election and ordered INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate of return and issue it to Gawuna.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, Governor Yusuf and his party, NNPP, approached the appellate court to challenge the judgment delivered by the tribunal.