The Kano State Governorship Election Petitions
Tribunal on Wednesday validated the election of the state Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje
of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Declaring the judgement amid tight security at the
tribunal, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Halima Shamaki, said the
petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lacked substance to
invalidate the election of Ganduje as governor.
The Justice Shamaki-led tribunal dismissed the PDP
and its governorship candidate for lack of merit.
Justice Shamaki, who spent hours reading the
judgement, finally delivered judgement on the fact that the PDP petition lacks
legal ground, saying the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has
the constitutional power to cancel election where it is clear that such
election is marred with irregularities.
She said it won't be a subject of argument for the
petitioners to drag feet on the verdict of the electoral body, which also
includes the declaration of the governorship election which was held on March 23
as inconclusive.
The judge called on the petitioners to embrace the tribunal
verdict in good faith and make sure that they stick to the existing peace and
tranquility in the state.
One of the leading counsel to the petitioners,
Maliki Kuliya Umar, said in as much as they have enormous respect for the tribunal
and the rule of law, they would request for the copy of the judgement, review
it and advise their clients on the next line of action.
He said the tribunal had ruled against them in its
previous ruling, “and we went straight to Appeal and Supreme Courts to contest
and won our cases, so this will not be an exception.”
On his part, one of the counsel to Ganduje, Ibrahim
Muktar, described what transpired at the tribunal as the last lap of the
governorship tussle between the PDP and APC as the presiding judge had
punctured all the claims raised by the petitioners.
He said he is happy since the judgement was
delivered in their favour, adding that he has nothing to fear even as PDP is
threatening to appeal the case.
Also, the Kano State PDP Chairman and former Secretary
to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Rabiu Sulaiman Bichi, said they are going
to appeal the case because since the beginning of the trial, they have made several
appeals on some of the verdicts of the tribunal and won their case at the
Appeal Court.
“We are going to instruct our lawyers to appeal the
case so that the party and our candidate, Abba K Yusuf, would be given sound judgement,”
he said, appealing to all PDP members to remain calm as justice will be upheld
in the apex court.
Reacting to the tribunal verdict also, the former state
Commissioner for Information, Youth, Sports and Culture, Malam Muhammad Garba,
said in a statement that the PDP should not waste its time and resources in
appealing the case as they clearly lost.
He said having been closely observing the tribunal
proceedings, the PDP couldn’t prove its case, and the case was thrown out for
lack of merit.
Garba observed that PDP and its candidate have no
need to appeal the judgment but to demonstrate the spirit of sportsmanship and
avoid overheating the polity by giving the people false impression that it was
rigged out in the election.
The former commissioner urged the people in the state,
particularly members and supporters of the APC, to remain calm and avoid being
tempted to engage in violence as security agents will not allow breakdown of
law and order in the state.
In his reaction the state Governor, Ganduje, revealed that
"when the election was held we won and the opposition PDP decided to
challenge our victory in an election tribunal.
"It is clear to all now that our victory is genuine as
being confirmed by the tribunal.”
He thanked the people of the state for electing him for the
second term and remaining resolute in their prayers as his victory was being
challenged at the tribunal, and he finally emerged victorious.
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