The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano State, Mr Abba Yusuf, has challenged the re-election of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje in the March 9 poll.
Mr Yusuf filed an appeal at the Supreme Court following the governor’s victory at the Kano State Governorship Election Tribunal and the Court of Appeal.
He was represented at the apex court by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Adegboyega Awomolo while Governor Ganduje and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), as well as the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were listed as respondents in the appeal.
At the sitting on Tuesday, Adegboyega urged the court to allow his client’s appeal, including setting aside the order of the lower court and grant all the prayers of the appellant.
Adegboyega predicated his argument on the ground that the Returning Officer for governorship election in Kano State unilaterally cancelled the results from 207 polling units.
He described the action of the electoral officer as ultra vires, null and void.
The counsel representing INEC, Mr Ahmed Raji, however, countered the claims of the PDP candidate’s lawyer.
Raji, also a senior advocate, asked the court to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the allegations were not true.
He informed the court that the true situation was that agents of the appellant prevented the collation of results from the said polling units.
The lawyer added that there is no evidence to prove the cancelation of results by the returning officer as claimed by his colleague.
On his part, the counsel representing Governor Ganduje, Mr Offiong Offiong, aligned himself with the submissions of Mr Raji.
He insisted that the final results submitted by the returning officer did not contain results from the 207 polling units in dispute, and there was no way he could have cancelled results he did not have.
Offiong, however, told the court that an agent of the appellant hijacked results of 62 polling units which he later presented at the Police Headquarters in Kano.
According to him, allowing the appeal of the PDP candidate amounts to sanctioning electoral violence.
