Appeal Court to hear Kano governorship election appeal on Monday in Abuja
The Kano division of the Appeal Court will be sitting in Abuja on Monday, November 6, 2023, to hear the appeal filed by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf challenging the nullification of his election by the Kano Election Petition Tribunal.
The hearing notices received by all parties show that the suit with case no: CA/KN/EP/GOV/KAN/34/2023 will be heard on the said date, according to NigerianSketch.
Counsel in the law offices representing all parties also confirmed receipt of the hearing notices.
Parties in the suit include Governor Yusuf and his party the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as well as the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Earlier on September 20, 2023, the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal nullified the election of Yusuf by declaring 165, 663 of his votes invalid, saying the ballot papers were not signed or stamped by INEC.
INEC had declared Yusuf winner of the March 18, 2023 election after he secured 1,019,602 votes against his opponent Nasiru Gawuna who secured 890,705 votes.
However, after the tribunal deducted the 165,663 votes from Mr Yusuf’s tally, his votes were reduced to 853, 939, which were over 30,000 votes less than the 890,705 votes polled by Mr Gawuna.
Consequently, the court declared the APC candidate winner of the governorship election and ordered the INEC to withdraw Mr Yusuf’s certificate of return and give Gawuna a new one.
But Mr Yusuf and his party the NNPP as well as INEC have since appealed the tribunal’s judgement.
NigerianSketch had earlier reported that President of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, has transferred all election petition cases pending before the court in the 36 states to Abuja and Lagos divisions of the appellate court.
This was done in a bid to curtail political interference in the dispensation of justice.
The report said all appellate cases arising from the judgements of the various election petition tribunals in the 36 states of the country would be heard and determined in Abuja and Lagos divisions of the Appeal Court.
By this action of Dongban-Mensem, only two of the 20 divisions of the court would determine all appellate cases arising from the judgements of the elections petition tribunals throughout the country.
