The Court of Appeal has fixed Monday, November 6, for hearing of the governorship appeal filed by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, challenging the nullification of his election by the Kano election petition tribunal.
The notice of hearing of the appeal was released by the Court of Appeal, Kano division indicating a suit with case no: CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023, for hearing at Abuja division.
The appellant (Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf) is suiting All Progressives Congress (APC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), seeking the the dismissal of the lower court Judgement.
Recall that on September 20, the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal declared Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the APC the lawful winner of the March 18th, Governorship election.
The court ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Governor Yusuf.
Although INEC declared Governor Yusuf winner of the election after he secured 1,019,602 votes to defeat the APC candidate who scored 890,705 votes. However the court invalidated the victory over detection of invalid votes of 165,663 ballots which were not signed, stamped and dated.
The development compelled the tribunal to deduct the 165,663 votes from Governor Yusuf’s tally, which eventually reduced his total votes to 853, 939.
Consequently, the court declared the APC candidate winner of the governorship election and ordered the INEC to withdraw Mr Yusuf’s certificate of return and give Gawuna a new one.
Meanwhile, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to avoid errors committed in the 2023 Kano State Governorship election, causing the tribunal to nullify the victory of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The call from TMG was the latest public outcry in Nigeria over alleged sack of the NNPP government in Kano by the election petition tribunal, in the ruling that the ballots containing over 65,000 votes were not certified by the INEC.
Speaking Friday in Abuja, the TMG Chairman, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), said it was mysterious that after a winner was declared in the election witnessed by a group of reliable observers, the victory was reversed by the court for errors of the electoral umpire.
While urging the judiciary to restore justice in Kano, Rafsanjani stressed that, “Inconsistencies associated with the election tribunal rulings have created injustice.”
The Group further charged INEC to restore public confidence in its processes as off-cycle elections hold in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa Stakes in the coming weeks.
Further, TMG tasked INEC on transparent elections where the court will no longer be the Institutions that declare victory.
