THE Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal has annulled the victory of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf at the recent March 18 governorship election in the state.
The Tribunal communicated its judgment through telecom service, Zoom, on Wednesday.
This is as a result of the 3-man tribunal panel not being physically present at the court today.
The Tribunal has, instead, announced Nasiru Gawuna, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the rightful winner of the Kano Governorship election.
Recall that counsels to both parties had closed their arguments on August 21st.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had, earlier, declared NNPP’s Abba Kabir Yusuf as the winner of the election haven polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat the APC’s candidate, Nasir Gawuna, who scored 890,705 votes.
The body, therefore, declared that the NNPP candidate won with a margin of 128,897 votes.
Discontent with the declaration, the APC approached the Tribunal to nullify the victory of Yusuf, this was despite its Candidate already congratulating the NNPP’s Candidate on his victory at the polls.
The Tribunal has now mandated INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Gov Yusuf and issue a certificate of return to Gawuna instead.
The Tribunal ruled that 165,663 votes ascribed to Yusuf was invalid and, thus, deducted.
It held that the 165,663 ballot papers were not stamped or signed by the INEC officials at the polling units.