The National and State House of Assemblies Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano on Thursday declared Hafizu Kawu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) the winner of Tarauni Federal constituency of Kano.
The declaration was made after the tribunal nullified the victory of Mukthar Umar Yarima of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) over forgery of his primary school certificate.
The APC candidate and former member of the House of Representatives, Kawu had petitioned the tribunal, challenging the legitimacy of Yerima’s victory on the basis of a fake certificate.
Delivering the judgement, the three-man panel of the tribunal upheld that the respondent, Yarima, didn’t attend Hausawa Primary School.
After analyzing evidence from witnesses and documents presented to the court, the tribunal averred that Yarima forged his primary school certificate and therefore was not qualified to contest the Tarauni Federal House of Representatives Election.
The panel consequently declared all the total votes scored by the NNPP candidate as waste and declared the petitioner, APC’s Hafizu Kawu, who came second in the election, as the winner.