Aminu Abdullahi

All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in the last Saturday gubernatorial election, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna on Tuesday rejected the declaration of Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party NNPP as the winner of the poll in Kano state.

KANO FOCUS reports that Gawuna in his first public appearance after the poll, spoke during a press conference by the party in the state capital.

The Deputy Governor who admitted that power comes from Almighty Allah, however said he aligned with the positions of the party which among others gave INEC 7 days ultimatum to declared the governorship poll inconclusive.

Gawuna who was in the company of party leaders, said it was astonishing that with the same election, 16 of the House of Assembly elections held same day and same conditions were declared inconclusive by INEC.

Meanwhile, the APC in Kano has rejected the announcement of Abba Kabir Yusif of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as winner of the just concluded governorship election in Kano calling for immediate review of the election result by the electoral umpire within seven days.

The APC chairman, who was represented by the party’s legal adviser, Abdul Adamu Fagge insists that the election should be declared inconclusive because the cancelled votes were greater than the margin between the first and the second parties of NNPP and APC respectively as provided by the Electoral Act.

Fagge said that there was no way the election could be declared conclusive with over 270,000 votes cancelled which a margin shows is bigger than the winner’s votes.

The party also drew attention to the cancellation of sixteen House of Assembly elections in the state, sighting violence as the reason, while the same votes were considered in collating the governorship election.

It expressed dismay saying the two elections took place same day, same time, same places and under the same circumstances.

Fagge said, “based on section 65 of the Electoral Laws 2022, we have written to INEC to revisit and cancel the hasty, wrong and selfish declaration of the NNPP as winner of the elections, and declared the conduct inconclusive”.

He said they have since written to INEC to within seven days revisit the elections based on the provisions of the Electoral laws and declare it Inconclusive.

The Legal Adviser  explained that INEC Returning Officer, acted not on the only basis of the provisions of laws.

The declaration brought intense electioneering and Saturday election in Kano to an end as two ‘king makers’ – former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and incumbent Governor Abdullahi Ganduje – in the state tested their might. While Kwankwaso backed Yusuf, Ganduje routed for Gawuna, his deputy, to succeed him.

Yusuf’s profile 

Born to the family of Malam Kabiru Yusuf and Malama Khadijatul-Naja’atu in Gaya Local Government Area of Kano State on 5th January 1963, Abba attended Sumaila primary school between 1968 and 1975.

He then proceeded to Government Secondary School Dawakin Tofa and later moved to Government Secondary school Lautai in Gumel where he completed his secondary education in 1980.

Abba Kabir Yusuf bagged a National Diploma (ND) from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi in 1985 and a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Civil Engineering from Kaduna Polytechnic in 1989.

He later obtained a postgraduate diploma in management and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Bayero University, Kano.

Gida-Gida’s grandfather, Alhaji Yusuf Bashari, under whom the NNPP governorship candidate started his Islamic education, was Danmakwaiyon Kano and a former District Head of Gaya.

Abba Gida-Gida began his career with the Kano State Water Resources Engineering and Construction Agency (WRECA), Kano State Water Board and later moved to the state Ministry of Water Resources where he held various positions.

He was appointed as Personal Assistant to the then Kano State Governor, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and later Special Assistant (Administration) between 1999 – 2003.

Abba worked again with Kwankwaso from 2003 to 2006 when the former governor of Kano State was appointed Minister of Defence.

He served as the Special Assistant to the Special Adviser to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Darfur/Somalia until 2007.

Abba was also appointed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua as the chairman, Governing Board of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Ondo State from 2009 to 2011.

During Kwankwaso’s second tenure in office, Abba was appointed as the First Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to the governor; and subsequently the state’s Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport.

The closely contested 2019 governorship election in Kano between the PDP and the ruling APC brought Abba Gida-Gida to the limelight.

Kwankwaso’s anointed candidate contested against the incumbent Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in an election that was declared inconclusive; but lost after a rerun.