Kano governorship tribunal sacks NNPP’s Yusuf, declares APC’s Gawuna as winner

Three-man panel of justices of the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Kano has declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna as winner.

The tribunal ruled that incumbent governor, Abba Kabiru Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) was not duly elected in the March 18 governorship election conducted in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as according to the justices, most of the ballot papers which returned Yusuf as winner were not stamped and signed by the commission.

Delivering its virtual judgement, Wednesday, the three-member panel led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay also ordered withdrawal of certificate of return which INEC presented to Governor Yusuf and directed a new certificate to be issued to Gawuna.

The tribunal justices commenced proceedings virtually a few minutes before 10:00a.m transmitting at Miller Road venue of the tribunal.

The court invalidated Yusuf’s election as Kano State governor after deducting 165,663 votes from Gov Yusuf’s total which it said were invalid votes, stating that the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.

Yusuf is the only New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) governor in the country.

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the judgement as Nigerians queried the tribunal for sacking Governor Yusuf over unstamped ballot papers, as they wondered whose responsibility it was to stamp the voting materials.

“So the Kano NNPP candidate was sacked because INEC didn’t stamp ballot papers not because APC actually won the election.

“Despite all Kwankwaso did for Tinubu in Kano, APC still took over the one state his political party won!”, said a respondent.

“The reason the Kano NNPP candidate was sacked by the court was because INEC (in all their incompetence) did not stamp ballot papers.

“Not because APC had the highest votes,” said another.

Meanwhile, all three grounds of the APC candidate’s petition were resolved in favour of APC, including; Governor Yusuf’s membership of NNPP; non compliance with the Electoral Act and total lawful votes (Invalid ballot papers used in the election).

Reacting, the NNPP has rejected the judgement, just as it said it will challenge it at the Appeal Court.

In a related development, the  Zamfara Governorship Election Petition Tribunal earlier Monday, dismissed the petition filed against the state governor, Dauda Lawal by the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Bello Matawalle.

The Tribunal Chairperson, Justice Cordelia Ogadi, who led two other members, dismissed the petition for lack of merit and inability of the petitioners to prove their case as required by law.

The tribunal held that the petitioners also failed to prove allegation of irregularities during the polls and awarded N500,000 cost to be paid by the petitioners to each of the three respondents.

The respondents to the petition are; Lawal, his party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Matawalle, the immediate past governor of the state and his party, APC had filed the petition against the respondents contending that the governorship election was marred with irregularities and Lawal did not score majority of lawful votes.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Ogadi held that the petitioners were unable to prove allegations of over voting and other malpractices, stressing that the burden of proof was solely on the petitioners.

She said that the petitioners were also unable to prove allegations of substantial non-compliance of the poll to the provisions of the electoral act that would affect the overall outcome of its result.

According to her, all the arguments were considered and the case decided based on the constitutional requirements as well as the provisions of the electoral laws.

She therefore dismissed the petition for lack of merit and awarded the cost against the petitioners.

The petitioners had alleged that the March 18 governorship election was flawed with irregularities and sought the tribunal’s order nullifying the return of Lawal as winner of the poll by INEC.

They also sought the order of the court declaring Matawalle winner of the said election on the ground that he scored the majority of the lawful votes.

The petitioners prayed the Tribunal to mandate INEC to issue Matawalle Certificate of Return and further orders necessary.