The Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano, has declared the Kano Guber election mainly between Governor Kabir Yusuf Abba Gida Gida and APC’s Nasiru Gawana as inconclusive.
On March 20, INEC declared the NNPP Candidate, Yusuf winner with 1,019,602 votes against the APC Candidate, Nasiru Gawuna’s 890,705 votes in the 18th March Governorship poll.
Despite Gawuna conceding defeat, his party the All Progressives Congress (APC) on 9th April approached the tribunal: APC v. INEC, Kabir Yusuf & NNPP (EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023), to seek redress.
The APC amongst others, based its petition on mainly three grounds, that:
-Kabir Yusuf at the time of the election, was not a member of the NNPP as his name was not in the register of ‘his’ Party, hence not qualified to contest the election.
-Kabir Yusuf did not score the majority of lawful votes as there was substantial non-compliance of the Electoral Act.
-Kabir Yusuf should not have been declared winner as the margin of lead was less than the number of cancelled votes hence the election should have been declared inconclusive.
The three-man panel led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebey dismissed all the preliminary objections of the Petitioner and respondents as there are prima facie evidence that the merit of the petition be looked into been a Court of first instance.
Citing the recent PEPT case in Peter Obi & Anor v. INEC & 3 Ors, the learned Judge ruled that the Petitioner had no business probing the process(es) with which the 3rd respondent had picked the 2nd respondent as her Candidate whether it was done rightly or wrongly.
It is not the duty of the Court to determine who the member of a political Party is, the tribunal ruled.
In his ruling delivered via Zoom as the judges were not physically present, the learned Judge declared the Kano Guber election inconclusive.
