Ganduje appoints commissioners — seven months after election

Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, has submitted a list of 20 commissioner nominees to the state house of assembly.

Abdul Gafasa, the speaker, made this known on Monday.

The nominees are Musa Iliyasu Kwankwaso; Muktar Yakasai; Murtala Garo; Muhammad Adam; Muazu Magaji; Ibrahim Muktar, Kabiru Getso; Mohammed Garba and Nura Dakadai.

Others are Shehu Kura; Zahara’u Umar;  Aminu Tsanyawa; Sadiq Wali; Mohammed Takai, Kabiru Lakwaya, Mariya Bunkure; Ibrahim Karaye; Mahmoud Muhammad; Muhammad Saidu and Lawan Musa.

According to the speaker, the nominees will be invited for screening.

The Kano state election petition tribunal upheld the election of Ganduje in October.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Ganduje, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the last governorship election in Kano, but Abba Yusuf, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, challenged his victory.

Yusuf asked the tribunal to set aside the election on the grounds that it was fraught with irregularities. But Ganduje, through his lawyers, told the court that the petitioner failed to prove that the election was rigged.

Kanu Agabi, counsel to the petitioner, argued that the PDP candidate scored the highest number of votes in the March 9 election, but that INEC refused to declare him the winner.

He asked that the rerun election held on March 23 be declared null and void, praying the tribunal to consider results of the March 9 poll and return Yusuf as the winner of the election.

But in its ruling, the tribunal headed by Halima Shamaki dismissed the petition of Yusuf for lacking in merit.