In a shocking judgement, the Appeal Court in Abuja has sacked Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The court upheld the earlier decision of the governorship tribunal which upturned Governor Yusuf’s victory and declared Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner of the March 18 governorship election in the State.
The Tribunal had declared 165,663 votes of Yusuf, who contested under the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), invalid because they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The governor’s votes were then reduced to 853,939 while those of Nasir Ganuwa, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, remained at 890,705.
Yusuf had rejected the tribunal verdict, which he described as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice”, and headed to the appeal court.
At the court, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, lead for Yusuf, asked that the judgement of the tribunal be set aside.
Kicking against the ruling on ballot papers, the senior lawyer said that was the first time in history that a tribunal would annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers.
He had said the tribunal erred, arguing further that, that was the first time that a political party would file a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the petition and the candidate would declared winner of the polls.
But, APC’s counsel, Akin Olijimi countered him and said that the appellate court stated emphatically that non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral malpractice.
