The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Gabasawa/Gezawa Federal Constituency of Kano state in the last general elections, Hon. Mahmoud Mohammad Santsi, has reclaimed his mandate at the Court of Appeal in Kaduna.
Speaking to Daily Trust in Abuja, after receiving his Certificate of Return at the INEC headquarters, Mohammed said that he won the primary election by a wide margin before his name was substituted in Abuja.
“The party leadership at the national level after collecting the form CV001 and form EB4V, which were the particulars of the candidate and the nomination forms of INEC affixed their signature.
“The form was sent from the national to the state and the state sent it to the local government. We were given the forms to fill and signed and we returned it to the local government, who will submit it to the state and then to the national,” he said.
According to him, the party was supposed to submit the form on 18 October 2018 and that it was on that 18 October that his name was substituted with one Hon. Nasir Auduwa Gabasawa, who lost the elections to him.
“He came second after me, but the margin was very wide, he had about 15,000 votes and I had 46,000. There was no rancour. It was peaceful such that people did not know that my name was substituted by an official who is a friend to Hon. Nasir.
“When I heard of what happened, I wrote all the organs of the party; we never get reply apart from the Kano State Chairman, who insisted that I emerged winner and that they were not aware of the development.
“So, we waited till the final date when INEC published the final list of names on the 25th of October, when I discovered that my name was substituted. So, we went to the High Court in Kano, which dismissed the case and I appealed at the Appeal Court, Kaduna division, which properly evaluated the documents and all the three judges agreed with all our 15 prayers.
“We wrote to INEC for compliance and they complied and I was given the Certificate of Return, after it was withdrawn from Hon. Nasir,” he said.
He however said that there was no love lost between him and Hon. Nasir.
