The Kano State Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal has declared Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress as winner of Kano governorship election.
Daily Report Nigeria reports that the tribunal sacked Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) as governor of Kano State.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, the three-man panel declared Gawuna as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election following a petition by APC.
The APC had argued that the number of cancelled votes exceeded the margin of victory between Yusuf and Gawuna.
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According to Abdul Fagge, the APC’s legal representative, the electoral commission violated the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act by declaring a winner of the governorship election because the votes cancelled by INEC, by far, outnumbered the margin of lead between the winner and runner-up.
On Wednesday, Oluyemi Akintan Osadabey, the lead justice of the tribunal, held that the NNPP’s vote margin was insufficient to recognise Yusuf’s victory.
Yusuf was declared the winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), after polling a total of 1,019,602 votes, to defeat Gawuna with 890,705 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, the APC had filed a petition against Yusuf, the NNPP, and the INEC) seeking an overturn of Yusuf’s victory and the declaration of Gawuna as the winner.
The party argued that the election was marred by irregularities and faulted INEC for declaring Yusuf winner.
The APC further claimed that the governor was not a registered member of the NNPP at the time he ran for office.
