‘We Kept A File And Patiently Waited To Use it Against Them’ – Ganduje Discloses How Yusuf Was Defeated

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has opened up on how the Governor of Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, was defeated at the tribunal.

Naija News reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the governor, who ran under the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), winner of the March 18 election.

However, the APC rejected the outcome of the polls and headed to court.

The lower court voided 165,663 votes of Yusuf because they were not signed or stamped by INEC. The governor’s votes were then reduced to 853,939, while that of Nasir Ganuwa, his APC rival, remained at 890,705.

The governor and the NNPP subsequently challenged the ruling at the Appeal court but lost. The court ruled that the governor was not a member of the party under which he contested.

Speaking on the court judgement, Ganduje stated that Yusuf was so desperate to be governor he didn’t realise that INEC had closed the submission of nomination forms.

The APC national chairman said they were aware of the development and kept a file to use as a weapon at the right time.

Ganduje said, “They were in PDP, and when the crisis heated up and they were punched repeatedly, they left the party and started groping for a platform. Unfortunately, they ran into a political party symbolizing fruits. They were given tickets because their leader was daydreaming; their leader was ambitious to be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but he was frightened.

“And because they desperately wanted a governor in Kano State, the party gave them a ticket to contest. But they made a serious blunder because when they joined the party, INEC had closed the submission of nomination forms. But they were blind and uneducated. They went into the ring without making careful observation of this.

“They did not know that we laid in wait. We took the file, submitted it to Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gwuna and told him to hold it tight. When we filed a petition at the Kano governorship election tribunal, we told the court that they were not fielded by the party. We told the court that when INEC closed accepting names of candidates, they did not join the party.”