Breaking: Supreme Court Declares Abba Yusuf Duly Elected Kano Governor

Supreme Court has upheld the victory of Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the March 18th gubernatorial election in Kano State.

A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice John Okoro, set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Abuja and the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which sacked Governor Yusuf and declared Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as validly elected governor of Kano.

The Court of Appeal had affirmed the verdict of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that sacked Governor Yusuf.

According to the appellate court, Governor Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP when he contested the election.

Earlier, a three-member panel of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, led by Justice O. Osadebay, sacked Governor Yusuf on the basis of illegal votes of 165,663, which were not signed, steamed and dated.

Displeased with the verdicts, Governor Yusuf, NNPP and INEC approached the Supreme Court, seeking to dismiss the earlier judgments and reaffirm Yusuf as the duly elected governor.

Subsequently, APC equally filed a cross-appeal challenging the judgment of the Abuja Court of Appeal for failing to disqualify Abba Yusuf from contesting the March 18 election over an alleged certificate forgery.

In its judgment on Friday, the apex court held that the tribunal was wrong in deducting 165,616 votes accrued to the governor.