Kano gov: NNPP Abba Yusuf wins at Supreme Court

Kano gov: NNPP Abba Yusuf wins at Supreme Court

 

The Supreme Court on Friday declared Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party as the winner of the governorship election that held in Kano State on March 18.

The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel, vacated the judgements of the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which sacked Governor Yusuf and declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressive Congress as winner of the poll.

The judgement was delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro.

The apex court held that the two lower courts wrongly deducted valid votes that were credited to Yusuf by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

It stated that the 165,663 votes deducted from Yusuf and the NNPP on the premise that the ballot papers were not signed, stamped or dated, were valid.

The stated that a total of 146, 292 of the ballot papers were confirmed to have been signed and stamped, only that they did not contain any date.

It held that by section 63(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, that ballot papers, which bore the official mark and was duly issued by INEC, were not totally invalid.

Besides, the court held that there was no evidence that Governor Yusuf influenced the non-signing of the ballot papers.

The court faulted the lower courts for nullifying Yusuf’s election on the premise that he was not a member of the NNPP.