Breaking: Appeal Court reaffirms Ganduje’s re-election

The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna has on Friday afternoon reaffirned the election of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State.

The five-man panel of Appeal Court judges 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 merrit.

They hereby dismissed the appeal in its entirity and affirmed that, Governor Ganduje was elected by the majority of Kano voters.

Meanwhile, counsel to the appellants, the PDP and Abba Kabiru Yusuf, Bashir Yusuf Muhammad said, they would appeal the judgement.

He said, the reasons for the decisions arrived in the judgement had not been given, but they would get the full judgement to know the basis of the judgement before proceeding to the Supreme Court.

It would be recalled that the People’s Democratic Party (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 Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 24 supplementary election held in some electoral wards in Kano state.

However, in a unanimous judgement delivered on the petition on Friday, 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 the 23rd.

The lower court also said that declaring an election inconclusive where there are lawful reasons is constitutional.