Kano Guber: Yusuf Closes Case As SSG Confirms His NNPP Membership

Proceeding at the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal took a fresh dimension, yesterday, as Kano State Governor, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, closed his case with a single witness against the earlier number of witnesses listed.
Recall that the second and third respondents, the governor and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), listed 450 witnesses before the tribunal to defend their victory against the petitioner, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The petitioner is challenging the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring Yusuf as the winner of the March 18, 2023, governorship poll in the state.
The APC is asking the tribunal to overturn the victory of Yusuf, because he was not a duly registered member of the NNPP as his name was not in the NNPP membership register submitted to INEC before the election.
At the resumption of tribunal yesterday, Yusuf’s witness, who is the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Dr. Abdullahi Baffa Bichi, claimed that the governor is a bonafide member of the party.
Earlier, counsel to the governor, R.A Lawal (SAN) presented the evidence the witness deposited on oath, where the witness declared that Yusuf won the governorship election, having polled 1,019,602 votes against his closest rival, Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of All Progressive Congress (APC) who scored 890,705 votes.
“The second respondent is a bonafide member of the NNPP with registration number: NNPP/HQ/KN/GWL/DS/001. The membership card was issued by the national body of the NNPP through the state chapter via the local council chapter through the ward chapter which was signed by the national and ward chairmen,” Bichi said.
During the cross-examination, the counsel to the petitioner, Offiong Offiong (SAN) challenged the witness to confirm before the court that he acted as State Returning Agent for the second (Yusuf) and third (NNPP) respondents during the state collation at INEC headquarters, Kano.
Offiong also asked the witness to confirm the pictures of the NNPP party agents on the documents presented before the court.
Responding to Offiong’s questions, the witness, Bichi disclosed that the rules and regulations of the election do not require the list to have pictures but rather a photo ID pursuant to Section 9 Sub C of the Electoral Act.
“I acted as returning agent for the second and third respondents, at the state headquarters of INEC, and not at the local council. State Returning Agents of INEC collated the results from all the local councils at the state coalition centres.
“As a State Collation Agent, I received the summaries that were read by the State Returning Agent of INEC Gubernatorial Election. The results are only relevant to me as agent of the party if and when the state returning agent of INEC had accepted them as the full reflection of the result of the gubernatorial election of that particular local council.