Kano NNPP rejects Appeal Court’s ruling on governorship election

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Kano has rejected the verdict of the court of appeal on the March 18 election in the state.

A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice M.A. Adumeh had earlier on Friday upheld the verdict of the Kano State governorship election tribunal which sacked Abba Yusuf as governor of the state.

The panel declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Yusuf Gawuna, as the duly elected governor of the state.

The appellate court held that Yusuf was not qualified to contest the election as he was not in the NNPP membership register before the election.

The NNPP chairman in Kano, Alhaji Hashimu Dungurawa, who addressed journalists in the state, described the judgement as a threat to the survival of the country’s democracy.

He said: “This judgement poses a great threat to our nation’s democracy because the electorates elected Governor Yusuf through the electoral process in a free and fair contest only for the Appeal Court to do otherwise.

“The judgement is very unexpected. We never expected it would happen this way. The way things are going and with the way the judicial system is, definitely democracy is coming to an end in this country.

READ ALSO: Kano Gov, Yusuf, out as Appeal Court upholds Tribunal judgment sacking him

“I see no reason why a person will go to the grassroots and introduce himself to the people, they will go to the polling booth to cast their votes, and the Independent election umpire will issue him a certificate of return.

“He will enter office and just one, two or three people will sit down and remove him. This is very unbecoming and is not helping matters.

“Democracy is said to be a game of numbers and the person in question happens to get the highest numbers in the election.

“In all the Assembly members we have 26 out of 40. We have two out of three senators. Even the presidential candidate is from the state and has the highest votes in a state in the presidential contest.

“We are not happy with this judgement and consider it not acceptable. We will take all the necessary steps to reclaim our stolen mandate.

“Because this is a stolen mandate and we will not allow it. People of Kano State are not happy with it and NNPP people are not happy with it.”

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