The Court of Appeal in Abuja has scheduled the hearing for Governor Abba Yusuf’s appeal, filed on behalf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, challenging the annulment of his election by the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal, for Monday.
This information is detailed in a notice of the case, identified as CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023.
The tribunal invalidated Yusuf’s election by deeming 165,663 of his votes as invalid, asserting that they lacked the necessary signatures or stamps from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Initially, INEC had declared him the winner of the March 18 election, with 1,019,602 votes in his favor, compared to his opponent, Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress, who received 890,705 votes.
However, following the tribunal’s deduction of 165,663 votes from his total, Yusuf’s vote count decreased to 853,939, which was more than 30,000 votes less than Gawuna’s tally.
Consequently, the court declared the APC candidate as the winner of the gubernatorial election and ordered INEC to revoke Yusuf’s certificate of return while issuing a new one to Gawuna.
Yusuf and the New Nigeria Peoples Party have subsequently appealed the tribunal’s decision, seeking its reversal in their favor.