The Supreme Court might have eased the political tension in Kano State a bit with its judgment that declared Abba Yusuf the duly elected governor of the state.
Arogidigba Global Journal observes that by the Supreme Court judgment, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso exerted his political dominance against the All Progressives Congress, APC, National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje in the state.
Kwankwaso is regarded as the leader of NNPP in Kano State and commands a large followership base with his Kwankwasiyya movement.
But, in the time past, Kwankwaso and Ganduje have endured a sour relationship with the duo being at loggerheads over the control of the state.
Amid their difference, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Yusuf, winner of the February 2023 governorship election in the state.
Governor Yusuf’s victory had been faulted by the APC candidate, Nasiru Gawuna, a former Deputy Governor to Ganduje who appealed the verdict.
Yusuf had scored 1,019,602 votes to defeat Gawuna, who polled 890,705 votes.
Dissatisfied, Guwuna appealed the results declared by the Kano governorship election petition tribunal in September 2023. Consequently, the tribunal and the Appeal Court sacked Yusuf as governor of the state.
The tribunal deducted 165,663 votes from the 1,019,602 recorded for Yusuf claiming the ballot papers were not stamped, signed and dated as required by law.
However, the Supreme Court affirmed Yusuf’s victory while ruling that two major fundamental flaws were discovered in the findings of the Tribunal and the Count of Appeal which led to a miscarriage of justice.
Justice John Inyang Okoro reversed the unlawful removal of 165, 616 votes from the total votes cast for the NNPP and its governorship candidate in the poll.