By Kamil Opeyemi
The court of appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the order of the Kano state governorship election petition tribunal which sacked Abba Yusuf, candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as governor of the state.
In a judgment delivered on Friday, a three-member panel of the appellate court held that the NNPP breached the constitution by sponsoring Yusuf who was not a member of the party.
“Section 177 of the Constitution requires one to be a member of a political party before he could be vie for an electoral office,” it held
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Yusuf as the winner of the election after he polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat his closest rival, Gawuna, who scored 890,705 votes.
Tribunal had deducted 165,663 votes and declared them invalid. The court also ordered INEC to issue a certificate of return to the APC candidate, Gawuna.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Yusuf appealed against the decision and petitioned the Appeal Court to declare him the rightful winner.
Details later…..