The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has fixed Monday for hearing in the appeal filed by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) against his All Progressive Congress (APC) rival, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna.
Yusuf is challenging the nullification of his election by the Kano Election Petition Tribunal, which sacked him on September 20 and declared Gawuna the winner.
The tribunal held that 165,663 of Yusuf’s votes were invalid because they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Yusuf has described the tribunal’s verdict as “unfair” and “a miscarriage of justice.”
Parties in the suit include Yusuf and his party, NNPP, as well as the opposition APC and INEC.
INEC had declared Yusuf the winner of the March 18 election after he secured 1,019,602 votes against Gawuna, who secured 890,705 votes.
However, after the tribunal deducted the invalid votes from Yusuf’s tally, his votes were reduced to 853,939, 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Gawuna.
Consequently, the tribunal declared Gawuna the winner of the governorship election and ordered INEC to withdraw Yusuf’s certificate of return.
