From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Kano Chapter of the All Progressives Congress has filed a petition challenging the declaration of the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Abba Kabir Yusuf, as the winner of the governorship elections in the state.
While the APC is the petitioner in the case, the NNPP, Abba Yusuf and INEC are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents respectively.The name of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress Nasiru Yusuf Gawanu is not among the list of petitioners in the petition filed before tribunal.
In the five volume petition, the petitioner deposed that Abba Kabir Yusuf was not qualified to contest the election in the first place on the grounds that his name was not in the list of members of NNPP sent to the INEC.
The petitioner also claimed that the NNPP did not secure a majority of the lawful votes cast in the February 25th governorship election in the state, arguing that some of the votes counted in their favour were actually invalid votes and if removed from the total scores of votes credited to the party, the APC will have the highest number of votes cast in the election.
The petitioner equally deposed that the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) erred in declaring Abba Yusuf the winner of the governorship elections on the grounds that the margin of lead between the NNPP candidate and the candidate of the APC was not higher than the number of votes cancelled, adding that the election ought to have been declared inconclusive by INEC.
The petitioner therefore prayed the tribunal to declare their candidate Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna or the APC as winner of the governorship elections in the state, having scored the highest votes cast once the invalid votes were subtracted from the lawful scores of NNPP.