The publisher of Daily Nigerian, Jaafar Jaafar, has debunked the issue of electoral malpractice in the ongoing case of the Kano State Governorship election.
Recall in March 18, 2023, election, Yusuf of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) was declared the winner by the Independent National Electronic Electoral Commission (INEC) with 1,019,602 votes, surpassing Nasiru Gawuna’s 890,705 votes.
However, the All-Progressives Congress (APC) took the matter to the Tribunal, alleging electoral malpractice.
Subsequently, a three-man panel, including Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay, along with two other judges, removed Yusuf from office on September 20, 2023, after declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid due to the lack of signatures or stamps from the Independent National Electoral Commission.
As a result, the governor’s votes were reduced to 853,939, while Ganuwa’s 890,705 votes remained.
In its judgement last week, the Appeal Court upheld the Tribunal’s verdict, which sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023.
In a post via X (formerly Twitter), Jaafar claimed that the issue of unassigned ballots tendered before the Tribunal does not exist, stressing that photocopies of random ballot papers were brought before the Tribunal and were not more than ten thousand copies.
According to him, the APC provided samples of ballots without specific pleadings about the polling units, and the Tribunal manufactured numbers to award victory to the ruling party.
He wrote: “One thing a lot of people do not know about the Kano election case is that there is nothing like 165,000 unsigned ballots tendered before the Tribunal. Let me repeat, NOTHING like that. What was brought before the Tribunal (Exhibit P5 to P34 and Exhibit P158 to P161) were photocopies of random ballot papers that are NOT more than 10,000. The ballots were never counted in open court.
“The APC provided mere samples of the ballots without specific pleadings about the PUs they got them from. The irony is that some of the samples are duly signed and stamped. What the Tribunal criminally did was to manufacture the numbers in order to award victory to the ruling party, APC.”
