Just in:Tribunal sacks NNPP’s Abba Yusuf, declares APC’s Gawuna winner in Kano

The Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has ruled to remove Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf from office, and instead, it has declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the March 18 election.

Yusuf, who contested on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) was declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

While Nasir Gawuna, his APC rival, who came a distant second, congratulated him. The party proceeded to court.

Reading of the judgment was transmitted virtually via Zoom, a teleconference service as the panel members were not physically in court.

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The ruling came weeks after lawyers of both parties made their closing arguments on behalf of their clients on 21 August.

Recall 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.

However, the APC filed a petition at the tribunal to challenge the results declared by the electoral body.

Yusuf, who contested on the platform of the NNPP was declared winner of the election by the INEC.

After the declaration by INEC, Gawauna congratulated Yusuf, but the All Progressives Congress headed to court to challenge the victory.

The three-man panel, on Wednesday, ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of return which INEC presented to Yusuf, and directed a certificate of return to be issued to Gawuna.

The court deducted 165,663 votes from Yusuf as invalid, stating that the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.

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