KANO APC SHARED 'ASO EBI', RENOVATED SECRETARIAT TO CELEBRATE ANTICIPATED SUPREME COURT VERDICT

The All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders and members in Kano State had anticipated a Supreme Court verdict in their favour and gone ahead to share party clothes more commonly called “aso ebi” as well as renovated the party’ secretariat.

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), thereby reversing his sacking by the Appeal Court.

The apex court had returned 165,000 votes deducted by the appellate court to the governor.

In September 2023, the election petition tribunal in the state deducted 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s total number of votes and declared them as “invalid”.

The tribunal said it was satisfied that the ballot papers of the affected votes were not stamped or signed.

INEC had declared that Yusuf received 1,019,602 votes to defeat Nasiru Gawuna, who had 809,705 votes.

The election petition tribunal in the state nullified the victory of Yusuf, therefore, the New Nigeria’s Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate in the March 18 governorship election.

In turn, the tribunal affirmed Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of the state.

The tribunal ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal in November 2023, saying Yusuf was not qualified to contest the election.

Ahead of the Supreme Court judgement on the governorship election in the state, local chapters of APC in Kano distributed uniforms (popularly known as aso-ebi), to members for a planned swearing-in of its candidate, Gawuna.

In one of the uniforms, the inscription “Section 177” was boldly written on the T-shirt, in apparent reference to Section 177 of the Nigeria Constitution which spells out the criteria for becoming a governor in Nigeria.

Also, the Kano Secretariat of the APC was renovated barely 24 hours before the commencement of hearing at the Supreme Court.

The party secretariat located along Maiduguri road, which barely had any scripture or picture on its building, now has the picture of its gubernatorial candidate, Gawuna, the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the state party chairman, Abdullahi Abbas.