Nigeria’s election authority had declared NNPP’s Abba Kabir Yusuf the winner of the March 18 election, beating Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the APC with a margin of 128,897 votes.
But in a unanimous decision, three tribunal judges declared Gawuna the winner of the election on the grounds that the votes that gave Abba victory were invalid.
The decision came just weeks after another top court had dismissed two opposition challenges to overturn President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory in February’s presidential ballot.
Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay who read the judgment via video link ordered the election authority INEC to withdraw a certificate issued to Yusuf and issue a fresh one to Gawuna declaring him the elected governor.
Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city and its commercial hub, is of strategic political significance, with the second-largest number of voters after southern Lagos state.
It has been a swing state in presidential elections since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 where candidates fiercely jostled to garner votes to win the election.
A stronghold of former president Muhammadu Buhari, Kano gave him the most votes in the 2019 and 2015 elections. But Kano ditched his APC party in 2023 and opted for NNPP, a new opposition party under which former governor Rabiu Kwankwaso ran for the presidency.
Although Tinubu won the February presidential election, Kwankwaso got the highest number of votes in Kano, securing 997,279 to Tinubu’s 517,341.
Kwankwaso’s electoral feat in Kano robbed the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of votes it should have collected for the presidency.
The tribunal verdict is a victory for Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Kano’s immediate former governor and national chairman of the APC, a close Tinubu ally.
The Kano governorship election was seen as a proxy contest between Ganduje and Kwankwaso, his former boss.
The former allies parted ways to become political adversaries when Kwankwaso dumped APC for PDP before joining NNPP.
NNPP’s Yusuf is expected to challenge the tribunal’s judgement up to the Supreme Court.
If he wins, the NNPP will retain Kano and prepare for the 2027 elections. But if he loses, the APC would consolidate its grip ahead of 2027.