APC petition dead on arrival, Kano gov-elect, NNPP tell tribunal

Kano State governor-elect of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Abba Yusuf, yesterday, asked the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to dismiss the petition, which the All Progressives Congress (APC) filed against his victory.

In a reply to the APC petition, Yusuf insisted the petition challenging his declaration, as winner of the governorship poll, did not only lacking in merit, but dead on arrival.

Addressing journalists after submitting the reply, counsel to the governor-elect and NNPP, Bashir Mohammad, stressed that his clients filed 34 grounds upon which APC petition lacks substance and competence to stand the test of time.

The Returning Officer, Prof. Ahmad Ibrahim, declared Yusuf winner, having scored 1,019,602 votes to defeat Nasiru Gawuna of the APC, who polled 890,705 votes.

But in its petition, the APC claimed that NNPP did not win the election with the majority of lawful votes, insisting that votes cast for the party were invalid, and if removed, candidate of the APC would have the highest number of votes cast.

Similarly, in the petition, the APC asked the tribunal to declare its candidate winner, having scored the highest votes, or it should declare the governorship election inconclusive, considering that the margin of lead is not more than votes cancelled.

APC had also asked the tribunal to disqualify Yusuf, because his name was not on the membership list of NNPP, which was forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the election.

In their reply, the governor-elect and NNPP stressed that all the arguments raised by APC are incompetent, null and void and fundamentally defective. The respondents asked the tribunal not to waste its time and energy on frivolity as contained in APC’s petition.

Counsel to the respondents, Mohammad, submitted that no competent court has jurisdiction to rule on a petition where the primary contender (governorship candidate) was not joined.

On the credibility of NNPP membership, Mohammed insisted that aside the fact that the matter is NNPP’s internal affair, APC’s interjection in a matter that is status bar and dated to pre-election hearing is questionable.