The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Friday dared the Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to take their case to the Supreme Court.
Ganduje was reacting to the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which sacked Yusuf as the governor of the state.
A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice M.A. Adumeh had earlier on Friday upheld the verdict of the Kano State governorship election tribunal which declared the APC candidate, Yusuf Gawuna, as the duly elected governor of the state.
The panel held that Yusuf was not qualified to contest the election as he was not in the NNPP membership register before the election.
The former Kano State governor, who addressed journalists at his Asokoro residence in Abuja, commended the judiciary for living up to the expectations of the people of the state.
He declared that APC would match NNPP grit for grit if they decide to approach the Supreme Court on the matter.
Ganduje said: “I thank Allah for this important judgment. We have to thank the judiciary for providing a good administration of justice despite all the distractions that have taken place since the beginning of the case.
“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 even the political parties, even the NNPP that took us to the Appeal Court.
“There is no doubt that after the election you get to litigation. And the end is always determined by the judiciary. For Kano State, this victory is for all of us. We are fully aware of what happened during the election.
“A lot of malpractices took place and we took the issue to the tribunal. And by the grace of God, we got a fair judgment in favour of our great party, the APC. Now the government in power, the NNPP decided to go to the Court of Appeal, and this morning, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment of the lower court.
“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, are ready to meet them in the Supreme Court. And Insha Allah, we will win in the Supreme Court as well.”
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