APC asks tribunal to upturn NNPP guber victory in Kano

The Kano State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged the declaration of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Abba Kabiru Yusuf, won the governorship poll in the state.

In a petition filed by its Legal Adviser, Abdu Fagge, before the state governorship election tribunal, the APC said that the NNPP’s candidate, Yusuf, was not qualified to contest the election.

The party based its argument on the ground that the name of the governor-elect was not on the list of members of NNPP sent to INEC prior to the election. In the five-volume petition, it alleged that NNPP didn’t win the election with the majority of lawful votes, saying that some of the votes cast for the ruling APC were invalidated.

The petitioner claimed that if the cancelled votes were removed from the total votes scores by NNPP, APC would have the highest number of votes cast. In the petition, the APC also alleged that the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was wrong to have declared Yusuf winner in the first place, especially when the margin of lead is not higher than the votes cancelled, insisting that the election ought to have been declared inconclusive.

The petitioner is equally asking the tribunal to declare APC as winner of the election, having scored the highest votes cast if the invalid votes are removed from the lawful scores of NNPP.

The petitioner is similarly praying the tribunal in the alternative to declare the election as inconclusive, alleging that the margin of lead is not more than the votes cancelled.

MEANWHILE, reacting to the removal of Gawuna, the state Secretary of APC, Ibrahim Zakari Sarina, said that the decision was personal to the party.
On whether the decision has anything to do with Gawuna’s seeming act of conceiving defeat, Sarina insisted that the deputy governor has not accepted the defeat of APC in any form.

“Congratulation is different from accepting defeat. Gawuna actually congratulated the NNPP governorship candidate out of his own volition. He did not do that on behalf of APC. The decision was personal,” he said.