Governor Abba Yusuf Rejects Tribunal Ruling, Vows to Appeal
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, who was on Wednesday sacked as the governor of Kano State has rejected the judgement of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sacked him and declared the All Progressives Congress gubernatorial candidate, Nasir Gawuna, as the victor of the March 18 gubernatorial election.
This disclosure was contained in a press statement released by Governor Yusuf in Kano State.
According to the statement, he asserted that he polled a total vote of 1,019,602 in the March 18, 2023 election to come out tops in the gubernatorial election, surpassing the second place with a margin of 128,897.
He noted that the judgement of the tribunal had had some identifiable errors and misapplication of the law that his legal team pointed out. Considering this, Governor Yusuf has instructed his legal team to appeal the tribunal verdict at the appeal court.
He, however, asked that the people of Kano State remain calm, and law-abiding and should not take laws into their hands.
Full content of the statement released by Governor Abba Yusuf on the tribunal ruling:
My good people of Kano State!
You would recall that on March 18, 2023, you came out enmass and voted for me as your Governor with total votes of 1,019,602 and a margin of 128,897 votes between my humble self and second place. Subsequently, I was duly sworn in as your elected Governor on May 29, 2023. You may also recall that the party that lost the election took us to court.
However, after almost six months of proceedings at the governorship election petition tribunal, today Wednesday, September 20, 2023, the judges of the tribunal have in their own wisdom delivered their ruling.
As human beings, their judgement may not be absolutely perfect, there are errors and misapplications of the law as pointed out by our legal team. That is why our constitution provides for other stages to go on with such as the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
On this note, we have already instructed our legal team to appeal this judgement as soon as possible to ensure that justice is done.
I therefore call on all the good people of Kano State to be calm and remain law-abiding. People should not take the law into their hands, and security agents have already been directed to ensure the full protection of lives and property of innocent citizens across the State.
We want to assure you that this will neither dampen our spirit nor slow us down, as this is a temporary setback for our State which we will overcome by the grace of Almighty Allah (SWT).
Alhamdulillah, and Thank you all! – AKY
