Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna has yesterday afternoon reaffirmed the election of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State. The five-man panel of Appeal Court justices led by Justice Tijjani Abubakar unanimously ruled that, the appeal filled by Abba Kabiru Yusuf and his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lacks merit.
They therefore dismissed the appeal in its entirety and affirmed that majority of Kano voters elected Governor Ganduje although counsel to the appellants, the PDP and Abba Kabiru Yusuf, Bashir Yusuf Muhammad has vowed to appeal the judgement.
He added that they will need to get the full details of the judgement, to know its basis, before proceeding to the Supreme Court. PDP and its candidate had on April 11 filed a petition at the Appeal Court against the October 2nd judgement of the election petition tribunal, which upheld the election of Ganduje of the All the Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 24 supplementary election held in some electoral wards in Kano State.
The Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal led by Justice Halima Shamaki had in its unanimous judgment on October 2nd, dismissed the petition filed by the PDP and Yusuf on grounds that the petitioners failed to prove their claims that the election was marred by irregularities and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
