BY Ayodele Oluwafemi
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the state’s governorship election inconclusive.
On Monday, INEC announced Abba Yusuf, candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), as the winner of the election.
Yusuf scored 1,019,602 votes to defeat Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 890,705 votes.
In a press conference on Tuesday, leaders of the APC in Kano, including Alhassan Doguwa, majority leader of the house of representatives, issued a seven-day ultimatum to INEC to review the election.
Abdul Fagge, legal adviser of Kano APC, said the INEC returning officer breached the electoral act when he decided to only consider cancellations caused by overvoting while ignoring cancellations due to violence.
Fagge said electoral justice would only be achieved if INEC sets aside the declaration of Yusuf as the winner and declares the election inconclusive.
“Our lawyers have already written to INEC national headquarters,” he said.
“Under section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC should redeem itself of the wrong, hasty, unlawful decision of returning officer and set aside the decision and declare the same as inconclusive.
“As well as order that a rerun election be conducted immediately. This is when electoral justice will be done.”
On his part, Gawuna expressed optimism that INEC would do the right thing so as not to disenfranchise voters.
He consoled the families of those who lost their lives in the violence that trailed the election.
THE 2019 SAGA
In the 2019 elections, Yusuf, the governor-elect, contested against Abdullahi Ganduje, the incumbent governor, and the election went into a supplementary poll.
At the end of the first election, Yusuf was leading Ganduje with 26,655 votes.
Yusuf, who was at the time the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 1,014,474 votes while Ganduje got 987,819 votes.
INEC then announced supplementary elections in 28 out of the 44 local government areas in the state.
Ganduje eventually won by scoring 45,876 votes while Yusuf polled just 10,239 in the supplementary poll.
The final results at the time were 1,033,695 votes for Ganduje and 1,024,713 for Yusuf. Both men were separated by less than 9,000 votes.
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