Tribunal upholds Governor Umar Ganduje’s Election

The Kano state election petitions tribunal has upheld the victory of Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano state.

INEC had declared Ganduje, who contested the last gubernatorial poll under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election but Abba Yusuf, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, challenged his victory.

Yusuf had asked the tribunal to set aside the election on the grounds that it was fraught with irregularities. But Ganduje, through his lawyers, told the court that the petitioners failed to prove that the election was rigged. The governor and his party argued that the exhibits that were tendered by the petitioners were not certified true copies (CTC), asking the tribunal to dismiss the petition in its entirety.

Offiong Offiong, Ganduje’s counsel, submitted that Yusuf invoked presumptions in an attempt to prove to the court that he was elected as Kano state governor. Responding to the submissions made by the respondent, Kanu Agabi, counsel to the petitioners, urged the court to ignore the response from the respondents on the issues raised.

Agabi said the PDP candidate scored the highest number of votes during the March 9 election, but INEC refused to declare him the winner. He pleaded that the rerun election held on March 23 be declared null and void, asking the tribunal to use results of the March 9 poll and return Yusuf as the winner of the election.

In its ruling, the tribunal headed by Halima Shamaki dismissed the petition of Yusuf and upheld the victory of the governor.