Kano State’s All Progressives Congress (APC) has petitioned the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The state’s ruling party is suing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring Abba Kabir Yusuf, the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), the winner of the March 18 election.
According to the petition, Yusuf is ineligible to run in the election because his name was not on the list of NNPP members sent to INEC.
The APC’s governorship candidate, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, was not named as a party in the petition.
The APC is the petitioner, while the NNPP, Yusuf, and INEC are the first, second, and third respondents, respectively.
The returning officer, Professor Ahmad Doko Ibrahim, declared Yusuf as the winner of the governorship election with 1,019,602 votes, while the APC candidate, Gawuna, received 890,705 votes.
APC also claimed that NNPP did not win the election with a majority of lawful votes, claiming that some of the votes cast for NNPP were invalid and that if those votes were removed, APC would have the most votes cast.
It also claimed that the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) erred in declaring Yusuf the winner, claiming that the margin of victory was not greater than the number of votes canceled, and that the election should be declared inconclusive.
The petitioner is asking the tribunal to declare that the NNPP does not have a candidate because Yusuf’s name was not on the party’s membership list submitted to INEC at the time of the election.
The petitioner asked the court to declare either Gawuna or APC the winner of the election based on the highest number of votes cast if the alleged invalid votes were removed from NNPP results.
In the alternative, the petitioner requests that the tribunal declare the election inconclusive, claiming that the margin of victory is not greater than the number of votes canceled.
After the petition is served on them, the respondents have 21 days to respond.
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