Appeal court to deliver judgment on Kano guber dispute Friday

The court of appeal in Abuja has fixed Friday, November 17, for judgment in the Kano state governorship election dispute.

The verdict will commence at 10 am.

The appellate court had reserved judgment on the case on November 6.

The election tribunal had affirmed Nasiru Gawuna, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the duly elected governor of the state, while nullifying the victory of Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

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.

The tribunal had deducted 165,663 votes from what was recorded for Yusuf on the grounds that the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped, signed and dated as required by law.

Yusuf was left with 853,939 votes after the deduction.

The court declared the 165,663 votes recorded from the affected ballot papers invalid while ordering INEC to issue a certificate of return to the APC candidate.

Yusuf had subsequently appealed the tribunal’s verdict.