The All Progressives Congress in Kano State has filed a petition before a Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, challenging Independent National Electoral Commission for declaring Abba Kabir Yusuf of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship poll.
In a five-volume petition filed by APC, the petitioner is alleging that Yusuf was not qualified to contest the election on the ground that his name was not in the list of members of NNPP sent to INEC.
The petitioner further alleged that NNPP didn’t win the election with the majority of lawful votes, arguing that some of the votes cast for them were invalid and if removed from their scores, APC will have the highest number of votes cast.
In the petition, APC also alleged that the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner was wrong for declaring Yusuf the winner, arguing that the margin of lead is not higher than the votes cancelled and that the election ought to be declared inconclusive.
The petitioner is asking the Tribunal to declare that NNPP has no candidate as Yusuf is not in their register of voters submitted to INEC at the time of the election.
The APC asked the court to declare Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna as the winner or to declare APC as the winner of the election having scored the highest votes cast if the invalid votes are removed from the lawful scores of NNPP.
The petitioner is similarly praying to the Tribunal in the alternative to declare the election as inconclusive, alleging that the margin of lead is not more than the votes cancelled.
It was gathered that the governorship candidate of APC was not joined as a party in the petition, as this may not be unconnected with his stand of conceding defeat.
The parties involved in the petition are APC as the petitioner, NNPP, Yusuf and INEC as 1st, 2nd and 3rd Respondents respectively.
According to the rule of the Tribunal, the respondents have 21 days to respond to the petition after court processes are served on them.
