Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and his predecessor Abdullahi Ganduje renewed their rivalry yesterday,
after the revelation of an alleged attempt by an anonymous lawyer to move the Kano State National Assembly and Petitions Court elections of the Kano State Houses.
A statement by Information Commissioner Baba Dantiye said:
“There is a strong rumor that some strong forces within the PCA, whose eyes are set on the Kano election petition tribunals, are determined to repeat what they did in 2019.
They are all ready to use all means to rule justice, as they have done before.
The state government considers this a litmus test for the current government to prove to the Nigerians,
its commitment to fighting corruption and defending democratic principles, ensuring that the matter is thoroughly investigated and those responsible are prosecuted”.
In response, former Information Commissioner Mohammed Garba denounced Abba Kabiru Yusuf’s New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) government and warned them not to appoint the chairman of the election petition, Judge Flora Azinge, so as to not be discredited” simply for their defense seemingly dismal court performance.
He said, “The deliberate attempt by the Kano State government to discredit the presiding judge out of fear of what the final verdict might be, creating a fictitious narrative and to take it out of context is a lack of respect for the judge and the judiciary at large.”
Garba, who was a spokesman for Kano State’s APC gubernatorial candidate in the 2023 general election, noted that “When Judge Azinge did the revelation about a senior lawyer’s alleged attempt to impeach a member of the court, Mr never had a particular party. .”
However, he said that in order to downplay the APC in the state, the NNPP government has resorted to the APC as a lender. Garba said the Kano state government anticipated the court’s possible exposure of the actual bribe giver and therefore wanted to defame the judge.
He recalled that the story of the trick, contained in a statement by Information Commissioner Baba Dantiye, “also indicated that the government was trying to smear the court ahead of the verdict so it could win sympathy from the unsuspecting public.
offer a bribe to anyone involved in the case as it has presented facts and figures to take the case forward in court.” “.
He noted that while the APC had presented all of its witnesses who had been successfully cross-examined during the court proceedings, the NNPP government had not appointed any tangible witnesses to handle its case.
While the APC reaffirms its commitment to patiently continue to seek legal remedies in this matter, it is confident it will eventually recover its stolen mandate.