Declare Kano governorship election inconclusive – APC tells tribunal

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to declare the March 18 election in the state inconclusive.

The party is challenging the declaration of Alhaji Abba Kabir-Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Recall that Kabir-Yusuf of NNPP polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat his rival, the incumbent Deputy Governor of the state, Dr Nasiru Gawuna, of APC, who scored 892,705 votes.

In a five-volume petition filed on April 9, the APC alleged that Kabir-Yusuf of NNPP was not qualified to contest the election on the grounds that his name was not on the list of members of NNPP sent to INEC.

The respondents in the petition are NNPP, Kabir-Yusuf and INEC.

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The APC alleged that NNPP did not win the election with the majority of lawful votes, arguing that some of the votes cast were invalid and, if removed from the scores, APC would have the highest number of votes cast.

APC alleged that the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was wrong for declaring Kabir-Yusuf the winner, adding that the margin of lead was not higher than the votes cancelled.

The party prayed the tribunal to declare that NNPP had no candidate and Kabir-Yusuf ‘s name was not in the register of voters submitted to INEC at the time of the election.

The APC prayed the tribunal to declare its candidate, Dr Nasiru Gawuna, winner of the election.

The party similarly prayed the tribunal in the alternative to declare the election as inconclusive, alleging that the margin of lead was not more than the votes cancelled.

Meanwhile, the Kano APC Legal adviser, Malam Abdul Adamu-Fagge, told NAN that the court had granted an ex-parte motion to inspect the governorship election materials in all the 44 local governments of the state.

NAN reports that the APC gubernatorial candidate Gawuna was not joined in the petition.