The Court of Appeal in Abuja affirmed the Election Petitions Tribunal’s decision to remove Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf from office on Friday. The court claimed that Abba Yusuf’s candidatures in the last governorship election violated the electoral law since he was not eligible to run in that election.
The Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal dismissed Yusuf on September 20 and declared Nasiru Gawuna, the APC candidate, the victor of the March 18 election. The ruling was rendered nearly two months later.
READ ALSO: Dino Melaye Gives INEC Seven Days To Review His Petitions Concerning Kogi Poll
Following the poll in March, Yusuf, who ran on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), was proclaimed the election’s victor by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Due to the impacted ballot papers’ lack of a stamp or signature, the tribunal deemed them illegitimate and subtracted 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s total.
Gawuna claimed that, “as a good Muslim,” he was had to accept the results of the election, whether or not they were in his favour, in a two-minute audio statement on March 29.
Despite his campaign team’s request for an INEC review of the election results, he continued, the commission had determined that Yusuf had won.
