Appeal Court Hears Kano Governorship Case Today

The Kano Division of the Court of Appeal  has fixed today, November 6, 2023, for hearing on the Appeal filed by the state governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, challenging the judgment of the election petitions tribunal which sacked him as governor.

A notice made available to the media showed that the suit with case number CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023 will be heard on Monday at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

Parties in the suit include Abba Kabir Yusuf, the state governor, and his party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as well as the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It would be recalled that the tribunal had ruled in favour of the APC when it declared its candidate, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, as winner of the election.

The tribunal nullified the election of Governor Yusuf by declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid, saying they were not signed or stamped by INEC.

INEC had declared Yusuf winner of the March 18,2023 election after he secured 1,019,602 votes against his opponent Nasiru Gawuna who secured 890,705 votes.

However, after the tribunal deducted the 165,663 votes from Yusuf, his votes were reduced to 853,939, which were over 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Gawuna.

Consequently, the court had declared the APC candidate winner of the governorship election and ordered INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate of return and issue it to Gawuna.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, Governor Yusuf and his party, NNPP, as well as INEC approached the appellate court to challenge the judgment delivered by the tribunal.