The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, has fixed Monday, November 6, 2023, for a hearing of the appeal filed by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf challenging his sack by the Kano Election Petition Tribunal.
According to the notice of the suit with case no: CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023 is slated for hearing and the counsels to both parties are fully prepared for the legal tussle.
It will be recalled that the parties in the suit included Governor Yusuf and his party the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as well as the opposition, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Also, it would be recalled that on September 20, 2023, the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacked Governor Yusuf and declared 165,663 of his votes invalid, saying they were not signed or stamped by INEC.
Then the INEC declared Yusuf the winner of the March 18, 2023 election after he secured 1,019,602 votes against his opponent Nasiru Gawuna who secured 890,705 votes.
But, after the tribunal deducted the 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s tally, his votes were reduced to 853, 939, which were over 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Gawuna of the APC.
Going by that declaration, the Tribunal then ruled that the APC candidate was the winner of the governorship election and ordered the INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate of return and give Gawuna a new one.
This prompted the incumbent Governor Yusuf and his party the NNPP as well as the INEC appeal the tribunal’s judgement wishing to be upturned in their favour.
