The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has fixed Monday to hear the appeal of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State against the nullification of his election.
Recall that a three-man panel of judges led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023, by declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid because “they were not signed or stamped by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
Yusuf however filed an appeal to challenge the nullification of his election by the Kano Election Petition Tribunal and the declaration of Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the elected Governor.
After the tribunal deducted the votes from Yusuf’s tally, the votes of the Kano governor were reduced to 853,939, 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Gawuna.
Consequently, the court declared Gawuna, the APC candidate, as the winner of the governorship election and ordered the INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate.
In his reaction to the ruling, Governor Yusuf had described the tribunal’s verdict as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice.”
Meanwhile, the notice of the suit with case no CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023 is slated for hearing as counsels to both parties fully prepare for the legal tussle.
Parties in the suit include Yusuf and his party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as well as the APC and INEC.
