Tribunal sacks Gov Abba Kano, declares Gawuna winner

By Musa Baba Adamu

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano has declared Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the Kano governorship election.
The tribunal gave the final judgement after cancelling some votes recorded by the New Nigeria People’s Party, (NNPP), candidate and Kano Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadabey said the margin of votes scored by the NNPP was not enough to give Governor Yusuf victory.
It said some of the votes credited to Yusuf were invalid.
APC’s Gawuna won all the three grounds presented before the tribunal which include over voting, invalid votes and not being a member of the party as at the time of the NNPP primary election.
The Tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to retrieve the Certificate of Return issued to Yusuf and give same to Gawuna as the original winner of the election.
She declared that the position of the law states that one must be a bonafide member of a political party before he was allowed to contest an elections, while in the case of Abba Kabir Yusuf he was not a member of NNPP 30 stipulated dates before the conduct of the general elections.
After the deduction of votes, Gawuna was declared winner with 897,000 votes, while Abba got 850,000 votes