Kano, Northwest Nigeria
There’s palpable tension in Kano state as Appeal Court is set to hear the suit filed by Abba Yusuf challenging the judgment of the election petition tribunal that sacked him as governor.
Truth Live News gathered that a hearing notice sighted by Sunday Vanguard, shows that the suit, no: CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023, would be heard today at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
Parties in the suit include Yusuf, his party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Truth Live News recalls that the tribunal had declared the APC candidate, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state.
The tribunal nullified the election of Yusuf by declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid, saying they were not signed or stamped by INEC.
INEC declared Yusuf the winner after he secured 1,019,602 votes against his opponent Nasiru Gawuna who secured 890,705 votes.
However, after the tribunal deducted the 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s score, his votes were reduced to 853, 939, which was over 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Gawuna.
Consequently, the court declared the APC candidate the winner of the governorship election and ordered the INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate of return and issue another to Gawuna.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, Yusuf and his party, the NNPP, as well as the INEC approached the appellate court to challenge the judgment of the lower court.