The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to declare the March 18 election in the state inconclusive.

The party is challenging the declaration of Abba Kabir-Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party(NNPP) as the election winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr Kabir-Yusuf of NNPP polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat his rival, the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Nasiru Gawuna, of APC, who scored 892,705 votes.

In a five-volume petition filed on April 9, the APC alleged that Mr Kabir-Yusuf of NNPP was not qualified to contest the election because his name was not on the list of members of NNPP sent to INEC.

The respondents in the petition are NNPP, Mr Kabir-Yusuf and INEC.

The APC alleged that NNPP did not win the election with the majority of lawful votes, arguing that some of the votes cast were invalid and, if removed from the scores, APC would have the highest number of votes cast.

APC alleged that the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was wrong for declaring Mr Kabir-Yusuf the winner, adding that the lead margin was not higher than the votes cancelled.

The party prayed the tribunal to declare that NNPP had no candidate and Mr Kabir-Yusuf ‘s name was not in the register of voters submitted to INEC at the time of the election.

The APC prayed the tribunal to declare its candidate, Nasiru Gawuna, the winner of the election.

The party similarly prayed the tribunal in the alternative to declare the election as inconclusive, alleging that the margin of lead was not more than the votes cancelled.

Meanwhile, the Kano APC legal adviser, Abdul Adamu-Fagge, told journalists that the court had granted an ex-parte motion to inspect the governorship election materials in all the 44 local government areas of the state.

The APC gubernatorial candidate was not joined in the petition.

According to the rule of the tribunal, the respondents have 21 to respond to the petition after court processes are served on them.

(NAN)