Kano Gov closes case at election tribunal with SSG as sole witness

<p>The petitioner is asking the Tribunal to declare that NNPP has no candidate as Yusuf is not in their register of voters submitted to INEC at the time of the election.</p>, <span>Kano State governor, Abba Yusuf KNSG</span>, <h2>Governor Kabir Yusuf of Kano State has closed his defence against the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Abdullahi Baffa-Bichi, as a sole witness.</h2>, <p>The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the petitioner, APC is challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.</p>, <p>The respondents in the suit are INEC, Yusuf and NNPP.</p>, <p>At the resumed sitting as led in evidence by Counsel to the governor, R. A. Lawal SAN, the second respondent witness (2RW1) adopted his deposition of witness on oath dated May 14, as his evidence.</p>, <p>Baffa-Bichi told the court that Yusuf was declared winner by INEC on March 20, having scored 1,019,602 votes against Nasiru Gawuna of APC, who polled 890,705 votes, with margin difference of 128,897 votes.</p>, <p>“The second respondent is a bonafide member of NNPP with registration number: NNPP/HQ/KN/GWL/DS/001.</p>, <p>“The NNPP membership card was issued by the National body through the State chapter to the local government chapter then the ward and it was signed by the National and Ward chairmen,” Baffa-Bichi said.</p>, <p>Under cross-examination by Counsel to the petitioner, Offiong Offiong SAN, the RW1 informed that he acted as the State returning agent for the second and third respondents at the INEC Kano headquarters level.</p>, <p>Baffa-Bichi said the rules and regulations of the election does not require the list to have pictures, but rather a photo ID pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Electoral Act.</p>, <p>“I received the summary of results that were read by the state returning agent of INEC after receiving from local government collation offices of INEC.</p>, <