Headlines
Ganduje vs Abba: The journey to the Supreme Court

Nasiru Yusuf
Kano state governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of the All Peoples Congress (APC) and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenger Abba Kabir Yusuf will know their fate this Monday as the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the rightful winner of the 2019 governorship election.
In this report, KANO FOCUS recalls the political and legal battles that landed the duo at the Supreme Court.
It could be recalled that 52 candidates including eight women contested for the governorship seat on March O9, 2019.
Trouble began with the reported disruption of collation process at Nassarawa local government by high ranking government officials.

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On March 11, the Kano state police command announced the arrest of commissioner for local government, Murtala Sule Garo, and the Chairman, Nassarawa local government, Lamin Sani for allegedly destroying Gama ward election result.
The police also announced that it had taken the Kano state deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna who accompanied the arrested officials into “protective custody”.
Following this incident, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Riskuwa Arabu Shehu told journalists that the commission would regenerate the election result.
However, the state’s Returning Officer Bello Shehu announced that the election is inconclusive because the number of cancelled votes is higher than the difference between the two leading candidates.
The result announced by INEC, indicated that the PDP candidate polled 1,014,474 votes, while Mr Ganduje of the APC scored 987,819 votes leaving a difference of 26,655 votes.
While the total votes cancelled across 22 local governments including Gama ward of Nasarawa local government were 141,694 votes.
Supplementary Election
On March 24, INEC conducted supplementary elections at 28 out of 44 local governments of Kano state.
The supplementary election was characterized by violence and voter intimidation by armed thugs.
After the supplementary election, INEC declared Mr Ganduje winner having scored 45,876 votes to Mr Yusuf’s 10,239 thereby upturning the result in his favor.
The Returning Officer, Mr. Shehu, announced that Mr Ganduje scored a total vote of 1,033,695 while Mr Yusuf polled 1,024,713.
The winning margin was 8,982 between the two major candidates.
The PDP and its governorship candidate rejected the result and asked INEC to cancel it.
Election Petition Tribunal
On Thursday April 11th, PDP and its governorship candidate filed a petition against the victory of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje as winner of the March 23 governorship election in Kano State as announced by the INEC.
The petition filed by the party before the governorship election tribunal contended that its governorship candidate, Abba Yusuf, won the March 9 election, as such any result other than that was a nullity.
The party also contended that the supplementary election conducted by INEC was unconstitutional and unlawful.
Mr Kabir-Yusuf told journalists shortly after filing the petition “during the March 9 governorship election, the PDP got the highest votes across the 44 local governments in the state.
“To me as the PDP candidate the only election that took place was on March 9.
“The issue of supplementary election as far as PDP is concerned was an illegality which we reject and have nothing to do with.”
On July 16, counsel to PDP, Adeboyega Awomolo, filed a motion on notice seeking the tribunal to grant his clients leave to amend the names of witnesses and their initials earlier presented alongside the petition.
Counsels to Ganduje and the INEC, Offiong Offiong and Adedayo Adedeji objected to the application and urged the tribunal to dismiss it.
In her ruling, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Halima Shamaki, dismissed the application saying that, “If the application is granted it will overreach the respondents and it will be an abuse of court process.”
However, court of appeal sitting in Kaduna granted the application of governorship candidate of PDP, Mr Kabir-Yusuf, to amend its witness list with additional eight “star” witnesses in his case against Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
Justice Adedotun Adefoke-Okoji, while delivering judgment on the appeal filed by the appellant, granted all the prayers of the petitioner.
Mr Ganduje filed a notice of appeal against the judgment to the Supreme Court, and the apex court upheld the ruling of court of appeal.
On October 2, Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal led by Justice Halima Shamaki had in its unanimous judgment dismissed the petition filed by the PDP and Mr Kabir-Yusuf on grounds that the petitioners failed to prove their claims that the election was marred by irregularities and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The tribunal also held that INEC was right in declaring the March 9 election in Kano State inconclusive and also in declaring Mr. Ganduje the winner of the supplementary election held on March 23.
It also said that declaring an election as inconclusive where there are lawful reasons is constitutional.
Court of Appeal
On April 11 the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate filed a petition at the Appeal Court against the October 2 judgment of the election petition tribunal.
However, in a unanimous decision delivered on November 22, a five-man panel of the court led by Justice Tijjani Abubakar dismissed the appeal by the PDP and its governorship candidate.
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The court affirmed the October 2 judgment of the Kano State Governorship Election Tribunal, which had dismissed the petition by PDP and its candidate, challenging Ganduje’s victory at the supplementary election.
Supreme Court
In protest to the court of Appeal verdict, the PDP filed an appeal at Supreme Court.
Rowdy crowd, judge’s illness compel Supreme Court to adjourn hearing on Kano election petition
On January 14, the court fixed January 20 to deliver its judgment.

Headlines
Kano Governor-elect pledges to reintroduce Kwankwasiyya free education, healthcare schemes

Aminu Abdullahi
The Kano State Governor-elect, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, has reaffirmed his government’s readiness to fix quickly the problems with the provision of potable water, basic education and good healthcare which are fundamental duties of a responsive government.
KANO FOCUS reports that the Spokesperson to the Governor-elect, Sanusi Bature Dawakin-Tofa revealed this in a statement issued on Friday.
Dawakintofa said, “despite huge tax payers’ money the outgoing administration claimed to have committed to the provision of basic water, Kano households strive in the twenty-first century to access safe drinking water in the State endowed with functional dams and resources to provide basic amenities.”
In his acceptance speech, the Governor-elect reassured Kano people that beyond fixing basic water supply, the incoming government will uphold the Kwankwasiyya philosophy with a wider scope of free education at primary and secondary levels involving provision of school uniform, learning materials, meals, conducive environment, paying SSCE fees for the students, training and motivation for the teachers to impart good quality education.

The incoming administration, which he said will be an off-shot of Kwankwaso administration, will be committed to free maternal and child healthcare programmes just as plans are underway for the upgrading of local health facilities across the 44 Local Government Areas of Kano State.
To bridge the human capital gap in the various public institutions, Engr. Abba administration will rebirth Kwankwasiyya scholarship scheme for tertiary education and terminal degrees in special areas such as medicine, science and engineering in foreign countries.
It is a resolution that the incoming government will complete abandoned projects and continue with laudable populist policies of Kwankwasiyya administrations just as youth empowerment and enabling environment for MSMES and entrepreneurship to flourish will be provided as enshrined in the Campaign Blueprint.

Headlines
TMG, CISLAC, CSOs dismiss report calling for review of Kano Governorship Election

Aminu Abdullahi
The Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, CISLAC and the Kano Civil Society Elections Situation Room have distanced themselves from call seeking for the review of the Kano Gubernatorial Election.

KANO FOCUS reports that Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Chairman TMG on Saturday told journalists at a news conference in Kano the group which identified itself as Accredited INEC Elections Observers are “fake, faceless and politically sponsored”.
Rafsanjani who was flanked by the Convener, Kano Civil Society Elections Situation Room, Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya lamented that the spread of the fictitious and malicious group at a time when Nigeria is having it’s political space heated up is not only worrisome, but also has the potential to further over heat the polity.
Mr. Rafsanjani, warned that “as genuine Transition Monitoring Group and Civil Society Groups are left without options but to take necessary legal actions against these faceless Group using their names to championed a Criminal minded, Politically Motivated and sponsored missions.”
Rafsanjani, warned that, “as Champions of Democracy, we will not allow smear-campaigners and people with politically motivated reasons drag credible Civil Society Organizations in Kano State and indeed in Nigeria at large into political wars with political parties”.
The CISLAC boss said “TMG, CISLAC and the Kano Civil Society Forum have done incredible Work towards electoral reforms in Nigeria, since 1998, TMG has Championed the Democratic path in Nigeria as the foremost elections Observation group with the widest membership across the Nation”.
He noted, “we will never interfere with the conduct of elections or seek to interfere with the Judicial processes leading up to a Redress of grievances resulting from the elections”.
For that the TMG called on public to disregard in totality the reports making round and using the names of credible organizations and called for the review of Governorship Elections in Kano.

Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya
Also in his speech, the Convener, Kano Civil Society Elections Situation Room, Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya, urged the Media to filter credible Civil Society Groups from faceless, politically motivated sponsored groups who hide under the names of credible organizations to concoct fake stories that suits their narratives.

Headlines
Nigeria recorded 3.9m cyberattacks before, during, after governorship elections

Mukhtar Yahaya Usman
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim aww Pantami has drawn the attention of the digital economy stakeholders and the general public to the ministry’s activities before, during, and after the 2023 gubernatorial and states’ houses of assembly elections.
KANO FOCUS reports that Pantami said the committee, which he inaugurated to monitor Nigeria’s cyberspace, recorded a total of 3,834,244 attacks, originating from both within and outside Nigeria, before, during and after the gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections across the country.
According to a statement released yesterday by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and signed by the Senior Technical Assistant (Research and Development) to the Minister, Dr. Femi Adelusi, the daily breakdown of the attacks showed that on Friday 17th March, 2023, there were 1,046,896 cyberattacks; On Saturday 18th March, 2023, there were 1,481,847 Cyberattacks; On Sunday 19th March, 2023, there were 327,718 Cyberattacks and on Monday 20th March, 2023, there were 977,783 Cyberattacks.
The statement further stated that activities on the Nigerian cyberspace during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections, we’re much lower than those during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

“This is neither surprising nor unexpected as, Nigeria being Africa’s largest democracy, the Presidential and National Assembly elections are bound to attract much attention of everyone, including cyberthreat actors than during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.
“The Minister is confident that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify our cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in this,” the statement further said.
Pantami reiterated that the attainments would not have been possible without the continued support of President Muhammadu Buhari, in particular, and the administration in general, towards ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy.
“The digital economy sector has enjoyed Mr President’s unprecedented support and it is highly appreciated,” Pantami said.
Based on the Minister’s directives, the committee provided close oversight on the activities of the cybersecurity Centres, from Friday 17th March, 2023 to Monday 20th March, 2023.
During this period and as previously reported, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and Internet Protocol Spoofing (IPS) attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing, the statement further explained.
