The Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the March 18 election in that state.
By so doing, the tribunal has sacked Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), who was declared winner of the governorship election in Kano by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the poll in March.
On Wednesday, the three-man panel, after hearing the petitions, ordered the withdrawal of the 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’s total as invalid votes, stating that the affected ballot papers were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.
The ruling comes about six months after the APC candidate conceded defeat to Yusuf in the wake of INEC’s presentation of the certificate of return to the NNPP candidate.
In a two-minute audio statement on March 29, Gawuna stated that “as a good Muslim”, he was compelled to accept the outcome of the election, whether in his favour or not.
He added that although his campaign team had requested a review of the election results by INEC, upon review, the commission had found Yusuf to be the winner of the election.
