According to the petitioner, the NNPP didn’t win the election with the majority of lawful votes, as it alleged that some of the votes cast for them were invalid and if removed from their scores, APC would have the highest number of votes cast.
The Kano State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to declare the March 18 governorship election inconclusive.
The APC made the demand in a petition filed before the tribunal challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring Abba Kabir Yusuf of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) winner of the election.
In a five-volume petition it filed before the election tribunal, the APC alleged that the governor-elect, Yusuf was not qualified to contest the election on the ground that his name was not in the list of members of the NNPP sent to INEC.
According to the petitioner, the NNPP didn’t win the election with the majority of lawful votes, as it alleged that some of the votes cast for them were invalid and if removed from their scores, APC would have the highest number of votes cast.
The APC in the petition further 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 canceled and that the election ought to be declared inconclusive.
The party therefore asked 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, saying that the court should declare Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the APC as the winner of the election having scored the highest votes cast if the invalid votes are removed from the lawful votes scored by the NNPP candidate.
Also, the petitioner prayed the tribunal in the alternative to declare the election as inconclusive, alleging that the margin of lead was not more than the votes cancelled.
However, it was reported that the APC governorship candidate was not joined as a party in the petition. It was gathered that this may not be unconnected with his stand of conceding defeat as he had conceded defeat in the election and congratulated the winner.
Meanwhile, parties involved in the petition are APC as the petitioner, NNPP, Yusuf and INEC as 1st, 2nd and 3rd Respondents respectively.