The Supreme Court sitting in Abuja on Friday affirmed the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP)
Justice Inyang Okoro-led five-member panel of justices of the Supreme Court had on Thursday, December 21, reserved judgment in the appeal over the Kano State governorship election after listening to lawyers in the matter.
The Informant247 reports that the Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf Kabir and the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) had filed the appeal challenging the November 17 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which nullified their victory in the March 19 governorship election, while also notifying the apex court of the contradictions in the CTC of the judgment which upheld the governor’s election and awarded him the sum of N1 million in damages.
INEC declares NNPP’s Abba Kabir winner of Kano gov’ship poll
It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Abba Kabir Yusuf, the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18 in Kano.
Professor Ahmad Doko Ibrahim, the returning officer, while announcing the final result said, Yusuf polled
1,019,602 votes to defeat his closest rival of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nasir Yusuf Gawuna, who polled 890,705 votes.
The declaration was made in the early hours of Monday amid growing tension in the state.
The legal tussle
The legal tussle started when the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state rejected the result, even after its candidate Nasir Gawuna had congratulated the winner.
The party, thereafter, headed to the state tribunal, where it nullified the election of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner of the March 18 election.
Yusuf, who contested on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), had initially been declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This declaration led to congratulatory messages, including one from Nasir Gawuna, his APC rival. However, the APC remained resolute and pursued the matter in court.
On Wednesday, a three-man panel presiding over the case ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of return that INEC had presented to Governor Yusuf.
The tribunal directed the issuance of a certificate of return to Nasir Gawuna.
The tribunal’s judgment was based on a deduction of 165,663 votes from Governor Yusuf’s total vote count, deeming these ballots as invalid.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Governor Abba Kabir appealed the judgment at the Appeal Court, where the appellate upheld the verdict of the tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay, which sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023.
The lower court had declared 165,663 votes of Yusuf, who contested under the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), invalid because they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), whereas the governor’s votes were reduced to 853,939 while those of Nasir Ganuwa, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, remained at 890,705.
Yusuf had rejected the tribunal verdict, which he described as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice”, and headed to the appeal court.
Wole Olanipekun, SAN, the lead counsel for Yusuf, at the court, asked that the tribunal’s judgement be set aside.