The New Nigeria Peoples Party has said that the judgment of the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is a replay script of the 2019 governorship election, where the tribunal allegedly upturned the peoples’ mandate and awarded it to the loser.
While appealing to millions of its supporters in the state and across the country to remain calm and maintain peace, the NNPP added that the alleged lopsided judgment cannot stand on the altar of natural justice.
You may recall that the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Kano on Wednesday sacked Governor Abba Yusuf, and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Nasiru Gawuna, winner of the March 18 governorship election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Governor Yusuf of the NNPP, as the winner of the governorship election of March 18, 2023, after polling 1,019,602 votes to defeat his closest rival, Nasiru Gawuna, of the All Progressives Congress, who polled 890,705 votes.
Reacting to the judgment in a statement signed by the party’s acting National Chairman, Abba Ali noted;
“The New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP receives with utter incredulity and disbelief in the judgment of the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal on the March 18, 2023, Governorship election.
“The NNPP recalls with regret that this Tribunal has simply replayed the unholy script of 2019 by overturning the will of the people and awarding election results to those who lost the election.
“The reported judgment nullified the free, credible, and globally acclaimed fair election of our Governorship Candidate, Engr Abba Kabir Yusuf, brazenly awarded the election to the APC Candidate, Nasiru Gawuna,” it said.
While bemoaning that the tribunal arrived at its judgment by deducting unfairly the votes of Governor Yusuf by 165,663 and awarding it to the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Mr. Gawuna was scared, saying that the 3-man panel judgment was laughable and a miscarriage of justice.
“The Tribunal arrived at this unjust judgment by unfairly subtracting 165,663 votes from the governor’s tally to enable it to award the election result to the candidate of the ruling APC. In doing so the tribunal affirms its belief that the vote tally of the APC Candidate was sacrosanct.
“The Judgement of the 3-man Kano State Governorship Election is laughable and nothing but a pure miscarriage of justice. The decision of the tribunal is a slap on the face of Constitutionalism and the rule of law and is capable of further discouraging the electorate from having confidence in the judiciary. The NNPP will appeal this most unfair judgment,” it stated.
