By Seyi Babalola
Following their loss at the Court of Appeal on Friday, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, stated that they are not frightened to face the former governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf, and his New Nigeria Peoples Party before the Supreme Court.
Kano’s immediate previous governor praised the courts for meeting expectations.
Ganduje’s appreciation came only hours after an Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal declared APC candidate Nasiru Gawuna the victor of Kano’s gubernatorial race.
The three-member panel chaired by Justice M.A Adumeh ruled on Friday that Yusuf was not qualified to run in the election since he was not on his political party’s membership list.
Addressing newsmen at his Asokoro residence on Friday, Ganduje said it would be unfair not to also appreciate the NNPP for dragging them to court in the first place.
He however boasted that they would match them grit for grit at the apex court after the appeal court threw out their case.
He 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 Inshallah, we will win in the Supreme Court as well.
“But, we want to assure the people of Kano State that the good administration that was provided in my eight years of administration was my deputy Dr. Nasiru Gawuna and now, the Governor-elect for Kano state will provide a similar not even similar. I believe he will provide a better administration more achievements will be recorded in Kano State. Because that is what we expect.”
