The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as the governor of Kano State.
This was following a unanimous decision by the five-member panel led by Justice John Okoro on Friday.
Delivering the lead judgement, Justice Okoro said, there was no substantial proof that the ballot papers in contention were not the ones deployed for the conduct of the election.
He said, “There is no proof that the said ballot papers were not the one used at the election. Thus the decision of the Court of Appeal affirming the decision of the tribunal ought to be set aside,” Justice Okoro says.
“Finally, the lower court wrongly misconstrued its evaluation of the ballot papers. This amounts to perversion. Accordingly, all the ballot papers are restored to Governor Yusuf,” Justice Okoro said.
Recall, that the election petition tribunal deducted 165,663 votes from the 1,019,602 recorded for Yusuf because the ballot papers (165,663) were not stamped, signed and dated as required by law.
The tribunal then declared Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner.
Details shortly…
