The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Kano state election petition tribunal to nullify the election victory of Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party on the grounds that he was allegedly ineligible to run for office.

The APC alleged that Mr Yusuf was not a valid member of the party, before being presented as its candidate in the election. APC, therefore, urged the tribunal to nullify his election victory and declare Nasiru Gawuna of the APC winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.

In its petition before the tribunal, APC said, “In Part A of the INEC Form EC 9 – Affidavit of Personal Particular of the 2nd Respondent submitted to the 1st Respondent reflects that the membership number of the 2nd Respondent is NNPP/HQ/KN/GWL/DS/001. No such number is contained in the 3rd Respondent’s (NNPP) register of members.

“The plan of the 2nd Respondent (Yusuf) to provide a conscripted membership card is a failed attempt to claim membership of the 3rd Respondent in order to mislead the 1st Respondent (INEC) that the 2nd respondent possessed the constitutional qualification to contest the election into the office of the Governor of Kano State, while indeed he was not qualified to contest the election, being not a member of the political party that sponsored his election.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Yusuf the winner at the end of the collation across 44 local government areas (LGAs) in the state.

Ahmad Dokko Ibrahim, the returning officer, announced that Yusuf won the election with 1,019,602 votes, while Gawuna got 890,705 votes.