The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja has sacked Governor of Kano State, Mr Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The panel of justices led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay upheld the judgment of the State Election Petitons Tribunal which sacked the Governor) on September 20, 2023.
The appellate court declared Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the March 18 governorship election in the State.
The Tribunal had declared 165,663 votes of Governor Yusuf as invalid , ad they were neither signed nor stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission,
After the deductions Governor Yusuf’s governor’s votes were reduced to 853,939 while the 890,705 votes of Nasir Ganuwa, his All Progressives Congress (APC) opponent were allowed.
Not satisfied with the verdict of the lower court, Governor Yusuf approached the Court of Appeal for redress.
His lead Counsel, Mr. Wole Olanipekun, SAN, urges the court to set aside the verdict of the tribunal.
He argued that the tribunal was setting a record by annulling an election over non signing of the back of ballot papers.
The Senior lawyer argued that the tribunal was in error for filing a matter without joining its candidate as a party in the suit and for the candidate to be declared winner of the election.
However, the lead Counsel to the APC, Akin Olujimi SAN, countered that the Appeal Court had ruled that the non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral malpractice.