Appeal court upholds decision to remove Abba Yusuf from Kano governorship

The ruling of the Kano governorship election petition tribunal, which removed Abba Yusuf from office as the state's governor, was upheld by the Abuja court of appeals on Friday.

In its ruling, a three-judge Appeal court panel declared that the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) had violated the constitution by supporting Yusuf, a non-member of the party, as its candidate for governor of Kano.

In September, Yusuf disregarded the ruling of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had declared All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Nadir Gawuna the winner of the 18 March election and removed Yusuf from office as governor of Kano State.

He declared that he will go to the Court of Appeal to seek justice as a result of this.

After subtracting 165,663 votes from Yusuf's total number of votes cast in the election, the tribunal declared him to be the outgoing governor.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not certified the ballots containing the votes, according to the ruling of the three-judge panel headed by Oluyemi Asadebay.