Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State has expressed determination to reclaim his mandate at the Supreme Court after the Appeal Court in Abuja upheld the tribunal’s ruling that nullified his election and declared Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the winner of the March 18 election.
In a broadcast on Friday, Governor Yusuf announced that he had instructed his legal team to challenge the ruling at the Supreme Court. He emphasized his commitment to pursuing legal avenues to ensure the restoration of his mandate.
He also spoke after Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the APC made some comments on the court judgment. Ganduje had welcomed the decision of the Appeal Court and stated that the party was prepared to face the legal challenge at the Supreme Court.
Ganduje expressed gratitude for the judgment and highlighted its significance for democracy: “I thank Allah for this important judgement. We have to thank the judiciary for providing good administration of justice despite all the distractions that took place since the beginning of the case.
“We have to thank the judiciary. There is no doubt this is a victory for democracy. It is a victory for APC and a victory for Kano State. This is an indication that democracy has come to stay in Nigeria. Democracy we can say is matured in Nigeria. We have to thank all those stakeholders, the political parties, even the NNPP that took us to the Appeal Court.
“For Kano State, this victory is for all of us. We are fully aware, we know what happens during the election; a lot of malpractices and we took the issue to the tribunal and by the grace of God, we got a fair judgement in favour of our great party, APC.
“Now, the government in power, the NNPP decided to go the Court of Appeal and this morning , by the power of God, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgement of the lower court. And by so doing, our gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Nasiru Gawuna is the duly elected governor of Kano State.
“But in all, probably, they will go to the Supreme Court which is part of democracy. There is nothing wrong for them to go to the Supreme Court. We too, we are ready to meet them in Supreme Court. And Insha Allah, we will win at the Supreme Court as well.”
