Tribunal reserves judgment in Kano guber election petition

Desmond Mgbo, Kano

Kano State Election Petition Tribunal presided by Justice Halima Shamaki, has reserved judgement in the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party and it governorship candidate, Abba, Kabiru Yusuf, challenging the election of Abdullahi, Umar Ganduje, of the All Progressives Congress as the governor of Kano State.

The chairman of the tribunal, having heard from all the parties, said that the tribunal would communicate to the parties concerning the date for the delivery of the final judgment in the case.

The parties had earlier adopted their final defense before the tribunal. While the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had sought for declaration of their governorship candidate, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, as the winner of the governorship poll, the respondents had prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition of the petitioners on the grounds that they failed to discharge the burden of proof.

The respondents, namely the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and the All Progressives Congress (APC), had through their counsel, Alex Iziyon (SAN), insisted that the petitioners failed to tender the voters’ register that indicated the number of voters, who voted and the number of votes scored to substantiate their claim that they won the elections.

They also held that the exhibits tendered by the petitioners were not the Certified True Copies (CTC), while praying the tribunal to dismiss the petition.

 Iziyon had told the tribunal that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had an inherent jurisdiction to cancel elections and order a rerun, arguing that on March 9^th 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) acted rightly by declaring the Kano State governorship election inconclusive.

Responding to their submissions, the counsel to the petitioners, Kanu Agabi (SAN), urged the court to ignore the response of the respondents on the issues raised.

Agabi affirmed that on the 9^th of March 2019, elections were held and results were announced, adding that Abba Kabiru Yusuf of the PDP scored the highest number of votes, but unfortunately INEC refused to declare him the winner.

He argued that the rerun election held on the 23^rd of March was null and void, stressing that the result from the rerun, which declared Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as duly elected Kano State governor was also irregular, null and void.

He prayed the tribunal to declare the results of the 9^th of March governorship election as the valid results and to proceed thereafter to return PDP and its candidate, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, as the winner of the elections in the state.