The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has sacked Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State.
The panel upheld the verdict of the tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay which sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023.
The lower court had declared 165,663 votes of Yusuf, who contested under the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), invalid on the grounds that they were not signed or stamped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The governor’s votes were then reduced to 853,939 while those of Nasir Ganuwa, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, remained at 890,705.
At the court, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, lead for Yusuf, asked that the judgement of the tribunal be set aside on the premise that it was the first time in the history that a tribunal would annul an election over non-signing of the back of ballot papers.
But Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel for APC, countered him saying the Appeal Court stated emphatically that the non-signing of ballots amounted to electoral malpractice.
