The Kano state governorship election tribunal is scheduled to announce its verdict regarding the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate Yusuf Gawuna.
However, the three-member panel of judges will not be physically present in the courtroom; instead, they will deliver the judgment via Zoom, a video-telephony app.
At the outset of the court session just before 10 am, Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, the tribunal’s chairperson, addressed the proceedings via Zoom.
Journalists, lawyers, party members, and others were denied access to the court.
Abba Yusuf, the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), was declared the winner of the March 11 governorship election, securing 1,019,602 votes to defeat his closest rival, Yusuf Gawuna of the APC, who received 890,705 votes.
Dissatisfied with the election’s outcome, Gawuna and the APC submitted a petition challenging Yusuf’s victory.
Tension has been mounting in the state since the tribunal reserved judgment, with NNPP members organizing prayer sessions.
During one of these sessions, Adamu Aliyu, then the commissioner for land in Kano, issued threats against the judges of the governorship election petition tribunal, warning that any judge involved in bribery would face dire consequences.
Flora Azinge, one of the judges on the panel, had also raised concerns about attempts by some lawyers to compromise the tribunal’s integrity.