The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna State has upheld the election of Abdullahi Ganduje as duly elected Governor of Kano State.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate had on April 11, 2019, filed a petition at the Appeal Court against the October 2nd judgement of the election petition tribunal.
The election petition tribunal had upheld the election of Ganduje of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in the March 24, 2019, supplementary election held in some electoral wards in Kano State.
However, in a unanimous judgement delivered on the petition on Friday, November 22, 2019, a five-man panel of the court led by Justice Tijjani Abubakar dismissed the appeal by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Abba Yusuf.
The court affirmed the October 2nd judgment of the Kano State Governorship Election Tribunal, which had dismissed the petition by PDP and its candidate, challenging Ganduje’s victory at the supplementary election.
It could be recalled that 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.
The tribunal also held that INEC was right in declaring the March 9 election in Kano State inconclusive and also in declaring Ganduje the winner of the supplementary election held on March 23.
The lower court also said that declaring an election as inconclusive where there are lawful reasons is constitutional.
In a related development, the Appeal Court sitting in Sokoto on Friday upheld the election of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of PDP as duly elected.
The four-man panel in a unanimous decision upheld Tambuwal’s election after dismissing the appeal filed by the Appellant and governorship candidate of APC, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, for lacking in merit.
Hussein Muktar, the presiding judge who presided over the sitting that lasted over two hours delivered the Lead judgement which affirmed the decision of the lower court that the appellant had failed to prove the allegations of over-voting.
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