There was jubilation in Kano city on Wednesday, as residents trooped to the streets to celebrate the victory of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The tribunal reaffirmed the electoral victory of Ganduje.
It said the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Abba Yusuf, challenging Ganduje’s victory, lacked merit.
The Chairman of the three-member panel, Justice Halima Shamaki, in a judgment read for over three hours, dismissed the PDP’s petition seeking the nullification of Ganduje’s victory in the March 9 and 23 governorship election.
The tribunal ruled that the governorship candidate of the PDP failed to prove his case against Ganduje and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9 and 23 governorship poll beyond a reasonable doubt.
It upheld Ganduje’s election, saying the cancellation which followed the Gama Ward poll and others that brought about the March 23 rerun was not only constitutional but also valid.
Giving judgment, Justice Shamaki, who gave reasons why the PDP prayers were struck out, said: “The difference between the outstanding votes at Gama was 128, 000 votes, compared to the 26,000 votes which the PDP governorship candidate, Yusuf, was leading with on March 9.
“There was a need for the election to be concluded through the rerun of March 23.”
Reacting to the judgment in a statement signed by the former Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, the government urged the PDP to accept defeat and support the APC to take the state to the next level.
