The Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has declared Nasiru Gawuna of All Progressives Congress (APC) as Kano State governor elect.
The verdict came weeks after lawyers of both parties involved the suit made their closing arguments on behalf of their clients on 21st August, 2023.
While delivering the judgment, the court deducted 165,663 invalid votes from Gov Yusuf’s votes, stating that the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.
During the judgment which was delivered virtually via zoom today (Wednesday), the three-man panel ordered withdrawal of certificate of return which INEC presented to Governor Yusuf and directed a certificate of return to be issued to Yusuf Gawuna of the APC.
Media Smarts Nigeria’ recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared that the NNPP polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat the APC with its candidate, Nasir Gawuna, who scored 890,705 votes. The NNPP candidate thus won with a margin of 128,897 votes
While Nasir Gawuna, his APC rival congratulated him for the March 18 election victory, his party the APC proceeded to court challenging the victory for alleged irregularities.
The grounds of challenges were Membership of Gov Yusuf of NNPP; non compliance with the Electoral Act and total lawful votes (Invalid ballot papers used in the election).
The tribunal resolved all the three grounds of the petition in favour of the APC.
However, the NNPP has kicked against the judgement, vowing to challenge it at the Appeal Court.
